I’m an Australian. A lot of the internet I interact with is in America, and a lot of the rest is in Europe. These are all hundreds of milliseconds away by fibreoptic cable, the latency of which is proportional to the speed of light.

I’ve been to America a few times. The internet is so fast there: not because of bandwidth differences, but because of latency, and especially sites carelessly loading chains of resources, which amplify the effects.

As soon as you deal in intercontinental stuff, you realise just how slow light is.

(As for studies in the effects of page load abandonment, those are never in the slightest bit relatable—at the time those studies suggest half the people are giving up, most sites still haven’t rendered anything at all, here.)