You are also right it is slower and in simple terms it is easy to see why by examining the structure of the session files (or just look at the main screen).
In 1.5 you had a simple 3 setting EQ for the track and not much else where as in AA3 there is a very significant increase in track related information which must be processed I suspect very often and inefficiently. But you can't ask an app to do more and yet run faster
In the absence of a patch then a 10k drive is the solution
And yes its slower than most of the competition but this is the ONLY app in the game which has a fair dinkum interface and not some sort of Fisher Price toy interface LOL
Can't be shipping & handling - nothing like a bit of price gouging