It started like that, but I think it also nowadays means "an awful lot of work for very small results".

If anybody's using it like that, it's totally lost its meaning. The whole concept is that sometimes to get result A you have to a total laundry list of seemingly unrelated tasks to clear the way.

This scene[1] from Malcolm in the Middle almost illustrates it perfectly except it's more Hal getting distracted on side quests that were spawned because he tried to change a light bulb...

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbSehcT19u0

Just circling back here to say thanks for the correction. The "seemingly" part is what I missed.

It's definition 1 in the link you shared:

    Any apparently useless activity which, by allowing one to overcome intermediate difficulties, allows one to solve a larger problem.