If this is true, there is something wrong with your system.
No there isn’t. This is a thing I’ve noticed in all GNOME systems, mine or not. What is happening is that you, like many other people, like to watch an animation when you click on something and I like desktop environments that just get shit down and don’t get in my way.
Obviously that 2s was an exaggeration, but still it isn’t as quick as KDE or Xfce when moving around due to its animations. Even Windows is significantly faster at launching things, minimizing and maximizing windows. macOS adds more animations than GNOME in some things, but it usually doesn’t get in the way on the essential things.