With 3 proxies traffic circles around the planet 2 times, which takes light 1/4 second to travel. Response does it again, so 1/2 second in total. Light is slow.
Plus TLS handshakes.
5 proxies does it even slower but would make attacks much more difficult.
Nature just hasn't switched to Rust (and Arch) yet. Maybe it'll also get rid of those pesky black holes.