Thats why pond size has been increased, even with three hard hitters there is a spot on the left and right you cant reach. If youre not a pond pro, don't stand in the middle easy as that. Besides that catching three things means youre gonna be at over 1000 catches in a year if you go daily or at over 300 catches in 3 months. Most players will not even be close to the amount of mobs. skill points or crops you need as equivalent for 300 pond catches after 3 months. I'm now on Prestige 6 to 7 and I need 149 pond catches which is already 3600 skill levels. If you boil that down into your 3 catches per pond that is 49 days to reach prestige 7 on catches with a system meant to last for a year where no one goes above 9. On top of that you can go to pond more than once per day if you wish to prestige faster or even go durring side times for US where theres like 4-5 players on the pond. I don't think the expectation should be that you arrive as a new player and immediatly prestige first day.
Swapping pond catches with something like mana monsters from the poll will essentially be a move against the core player base because it's us who actually really prestige and we have to do the extra work. If youre new on the other side and you like earth and want to prestige you will find a way to catch more on pond. It's not rocket science, it's pond.