Sick of game night turning into an unboxing session instead of actually playing

Rant/vent: I keep leaving game night annoyed and I feel like I might be the only one who notices.

I commute in from the suburbs and get home late on weeknights. The thing I look forward to most is a solid 2 to 3 hours of actually playing something. Lately our host has turned every meetup into a show-and-tell for their latest purchases, upgraded bits, fancy inserts, and half-punched expansions. I get there and the table is already buried in boxes. Then we spend 20 minutes opening things, 10 minutes sorting, 15 minutes comparing components, and another 15 minutes arguing about which version of the rules to use. By the time we finally start, there is only time for one rushed game and no one has the energy to learn anything properly.

I am not anti-collection or against people being excited. I just do not want that to be the whole night when people blocked out time, drove over, and brought snacks.

What makes it worse is when someone suggests a lighter game to actually fit the time and it gets treated like a compromise or a downgrade. No, I would much rather play something we can finish and actually talk about than spend an hour sleeving cards and call it a hobby.

How do you set expectations without sounding like a jerk? Should I just start hosting and lay down some simple rules: pick the game before people arrive, set it up before the start time, and if you want to show off new stuff do it after we play? I am honestly close to skipping for a while because I am burned out on the meta game of organizing pieces.