A few decades ago, pure mathematics was a genuine exception to the "race for citations". Hiring committees were more interested in the profundity of results than their number. For various understandable reasons, this last bastion fell and now PhD students and postdocs are expected to have many on top of ground-breaking results. It is important to emphasize to young researchers that the vision of getting tenure after a few ground-breaking results is a relic of the past (exceptions always exist).
Sadly, I was enraptured by the romanticism of the old style research loop as a PhD student, and being not-very-savvy to say the least, I missed the bullet train by mistaking it for a horse carriage.
Yes, that is a very interesting point. You are very right though, that the trend has changed and there's a pressure now. I don't think your own experience is necessarily a bad thing. It's best to stick with your own ideals rather than bend to the will of others.
Sadly, I was enraptured by the romanticism of the old style research loop as a PhD student, and being not-very-savvy to say the least, I missed the bullet train by mistaking it for a horse carriage.