> Edit: I'm using a Thinkpad P1 Gen2, a top-tier recent-gen workstation laptop, and this is a big enough problem where it's forcing me to use X11 on Ubuntu 20.04.

I'm also on a P1gen2. I just added support for the Trackpoint/Thinkpad through the more advanced RMI4 interface in the kernel, instead of going through PS/2 emulation mode:

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/dtor/input.g... https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/dtor/input.g...

This will be in Linux 5.10 and should improve things quite a bit.