The peak of fast software was definitely Windows XP, Windows 7, and OS X Snow Leopard. I don't see us returning to that glorious era.
Recently I was frustrated by Windows 11's seeming inability to open a context menu with acceptable speed - right click an item in the taskbar and there is nearly a 1000ms delay before the menu appears. That is unacceptable.
When I need to run old software, I now try to the "minimum viable runner" OS - start with an XP VM and slowly move upwards if it doesn't work. Obviously I'll lock it down from internet access/etc., but it really shows that modern OSes really don't have a grip on performance.