1. How long did it take for a transaction to be confirmed?
I was in to bitcoin when it was at sub $700. Transactions were super quick, with pretty much almost-free fees. Transactions so fast and so so cheap that I was playing around with some sats(that I've collected using faucets), moving them between multiple wallets multiple times without even caring about the transaction fees.
Transaction times haven't slowed down compared to how fast they are currently. Bitcoin is designed to have a new block found once every 10 minutes. With transaction volume today being where it was in 2015/2016 usually the mempool can get cleaned out in one single block. Because of this transaction times arepretty much the same.
True. But comparing the speed in conjunction with the fees in the past? That's a different story. Bitcoin transactions are definitely a lot cheaper now compared to fees last December, but the fees are still significantly more expensive now compared to the fees before(though also taking note that bitcoin was also significantly cheaper back then)