I didn't find it super grindy to get the hard badge. Just focused top line for both arms and fourth line for body, and did only the first 2 and last 4 researches. The last few levels are harder with so much shielded metal, but the core upgrades should get through enough to win.
The problem is that it's not very difficult to get the other 57 trophies in well under 2 hours, so then you're left with an idle game until the 2:30 mark for the badge ...
It would appear that this game is no longer using functional Kong API, so no more high scores or badges. (I base this not just on my own game, but the fact that the high score table shows no scores submitted at all in the past 24 hours.) I guess we'll have to use the "Report missing achievement" link to get any badges.