Well, why would I want to grind 5 hours for weak armor and accessoreis that barely boost weak items (acually stardust armor is so much better than solar flare (not def tho)
pre-boss, hardmode: spider staff and armor defininely take 5 hrs to get, firecracker has the same drop chance as clockwork rifle + lategame utility (with desert tiger)
With this you kill Dreadnautilus, hard and a bit grindy, but sanguine staff (now it has 100% drop chance) is as strong as best single target ranged weapons, excluding daedalus and darts
You can also combine them, e. g. dart pistol+ ichor darts while using full summoner with sangune bats
You'll kill Queen slime with these and obtain blade staff (decent drop chance), a nice addition, especially with tag dmg whips.
All whips are easily craftable.
Consider using forbidden set, its also does well with bats
Mechs: are not a problem with these, optic staff is easily craftable too
Plantera: basically no changes, only some new options for secondary weapons, like chlorophyte shotbow + ichor arrow/ imbued true swords, death sickle
You can not use these, if you are pure summoner
Post-plant: here its a bit grindy, yes, because now desert tiger + firecracker are the best. Performance is well worth it.
But warriors, for example, should grind too, as they defininely want 2 keys instead of one (crimson+ corruption) and 2-3 gloves to speed up terra blade
Defeat pumpkin moon: dark harvest has same drop chance as other weapons, accessories are fairly easy acessible too
EoL: kaleidoscope has the same drop chance as other loot, again
Martians: xeno staff has same drop chance as other weapons, what a surprise
Lunar: 18 fragments for dragon defininely mean 18 defeated stardust pillars
And, as a bonus – hard to obtain, but not grindy terraprisma – the most powerful pre-lunar weapon among all classes
So its not that grindy and not weak