This is because the small parties have jumped into the tribal mindset far too much; NZF and TPM used to be able to work with Nat or Lab, there is no United Future or Alliance anymore.

Last election we had FPTP with extra steps; there was a clear left/right split and no option of cross bench.

This time around Opportunity will sit in the middle and wield power beyond their vote; not a bad thing in this specific situation, but for the last ~30 years that has been NZF and Winston has made the decision who will govern.

Ideally there would be 3-4 small parties that sat in the middle who had their own interpretations of how to do things, the bigger parties could then actually have options to negotiate with. It would mean an extra week or so before government was formed, but it would stop one party holding the power.