i have a brand new 9800x3d lol. maybe my definition of 'slow' is different.
The economy is the point, but the only thing you can do is make buildings. I also think the lack of stockpiling makes everything feel so ephemeral; never really feel the difference between -75 and +75% pricing, plus all the mapi stuff; its just too much detail for so little difference in outcome. Once you go beyond like 10 states to take care of, I just build wherever there are jobseekers and don't worry about pricing. The game UI makes its so difficult to manage effectively. Too tedious!
the perf patches have helped alot; i use to quit out around 1870... so we're getting there. I've played 100+ hours of vic3 and never made it past 1905