Slow access to Lacie D2 7200 RPM 4TB drive from M2 Air Ventura 13.2

Colleagues,

Just got a new M2 Air with 16gb, 256gb internal SSD and I purchased a self-powered, LaCie D2 Professional 4TB external 7200 RPM drive.

Formatted it APFS, transferred 1TB of existing files from my older mac and now using it for 3D modeling (Blender). This is directly connected to one of the two thunderbolt ports on the Air via a supplied USB-C cable from LaCie. It is self-powered and uses no Laptop power.

Every time I try to access a folder or file from the external 4TB Lacie, it takes about 15-20 seconds before the access light even comes on and then another 5-10 seconds for the files to populate in Finder.

This problem spreads to all apps including Blender where any files or projects, assets etc need to be accessed from the external drive, I see the delay.

This is not due to a system issue as the internal SSD flies like a rocket when I place all my assets and project data on it. Accesses from Finder also behave that way.

I have run the performance tests on this external drive and it runs as advertised around 250 MB /sec transfer speed.

Does anyone else have this issue with an external hard drive? I didn't go for an external SSD due to breaking the budget and have had great experiences with 7200 RPM drives in the past.