Wasn't the key concept that it is a lot faster (as long as you need to be convinced by confirmations) and doesn't require specific trust in one specific, reputable 3rd party (like Mt Gox or Gavin), only the nodes?
That's the trade-off: decentralization means verification can only be through the nodes, which requires some time. This is also why transaction fees are still a necessary evil, even with bitcoins; miners need some kind of incentive to process the blocks. Maybe once all the BTC have been mined transactions can be verified more quickly.