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Then why do I have to wait so long for my Bitcoin BTC transactions to be processed?

You aren’t paying enough to have it processed, is the technically correct answer.

Unless you want a transaction in less than 5 minutes (on average). If you want less than that, like say a few seconds for a credit card, then you have to use something besides bitcoin.

Wasn't the latency and limitation on throughput of number of transactions per second a flaw in design? I remember it that the whole process must have have been redesinged in order to get to what Banks are capable right now.

Transactions aren't free, they incur a permanent storage cost on nodes. Whether that's a design flaw is up to you, but any other solution has other tradeoffs.

The lightning network exists, which I believe can eventually offer more bank-level transaction volumes off chain (still trustlessly) with periodic "commits" back to the chain.

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