Unfortunately, from some of the other comments in this discussion, it seems a lot of developers don't know any better either --- they've never seen what real "fast" is, so they think the amount of latency they experience is normal.
I've recently been amazed when cracking an old cryptanalysis puzzle at what Python can do in very little time. But I have no idea what a responsive OS feels like on a general standpoint. Should I try to compile Firefox on Windows 3.1? (Just kidding on this last one, obviously.)