Onboarding speed and slippage with prop firm brokers

Anyone else finding that the KYC/KYB for some of these prop firms is just an absolute drag? I get the need for compliance, but waiting days to get an account approved, especially with their partner brokers, feels antiquated. Then, once you're in, the spreads on some of these 'challenge' accounts are noticeably wider than my live retail account, leading to more slippage on market orders. It's a double whammy.

Are we just accepting this as the cost of doing business with prop firms, or are there firms out there genuinely offering tighter integration and more competitive execution environments? I'm curious about experiences with payout reliability too, because if the friction is this high getting in, I can only imagine what it's like getting capital out.