It's not Presto per se, but running any data processing workload against unoptimized data formats is the issue.

Then again, both BigQuey and Snowflake require that you move data into their storage engine (Redshift too), and that's an additional step that's proportional to the size and complexity of your data. At the same time, it's stupid to store your logs as OLAP optimized formats and completely lose legibility. In sum, Athena trades off performance for convenience.

No matter what database vendors say, you can't defy the principles of computer science.