It could be a little faster, maybe, but with good indicators of things happening under the hood, which Google offers, reliable results, and the daily comparison

It could be a little faster, maybe, but with good indicators of things happening under the hood, which Google offers, reliable results, and the daily comparison to m365, I have no complaints. And really, the only faster email setup I have ever used was mutt right on the MTA. I haven't used Fastmail but ProtonMail (my backup choice due to their combo mail+VPN+drive offer) certainly doesn't feel faster than Google.