A lot of altcoins can confirm in 30 seconds.
So why is bitcoins confirmation at 10 minutes?
Because that is the way it was created. It is essentially an arbitrary attempt to balance fast confirmations against the costs of orphaned blocks due to network latency.
Is a 10 minute confirmation a good thing or bad?
Yes.
Is it possible for bitcoins confirmation time to be sped up?
Technically possible? Yes.
Practicially possible? No.