Quite normal on most bike computers already with a slow refresh, even if they're able to refresh faster. You can't really read a number if it keeps changing all the time.
> 0.5s latency on any update, which would be obnoxious in some situations.
What situation?
i can push it as high as 20Hz.
For me, it matters only when I'm futzing with the map: dragging around or zooming. For the rest of the info on the display, anything more than 500ms interval seems like a waste of power.