Doesn't that have something to do with Monty's philosophy? He'd always get stuff done, even if it meant to skip sleep or food. And if he had to cut a few corners where it doesn't really matter, no big deal.
With the size of the team working on RWBY, they can't afford to lose much time on backgrounds. Disney can afford to assign a team of comparable size for a single scene that will take a two months to make and two weeks to render on a rendering farm the size of a small town. RT is still a relatively small studio.