Q: Intentionally created GUI delay disturbs user experience

No idea what you're talking about. I've never seen anything like what you're describing.

A selected menu item blinks twice (maybe three times). It takes all of a quarter of second, if even that to do it. It's been part of the Apple GUI since the first Mac OS. I really doubt they'll change it, but you can always submit feedback.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

sounds like you may have triggered something in your accessibility options.

I suggest you take a look in

>System Preferences...>Accessibility 

and go through the selections to see if something is on that is causing this.

otherwise I've never seen it in any instance of OS X (or OS 9,8, or 7 for that matter.)

oh that?

I never noticed until you posted.

18 years on macs, it's probably 1.85ms of my life that I wasted waiting for that blink to stop.

You're doing it the hard way then if you're mousing to the menu bar that much.

In Windows, where every menu command is a two step move from the keyboard (Alt first, then choose a menu command), most Windows users rely on the mouse because it's faster. It's also why having the menu on every single open window helps. You just move to the nearest one.

In the Mac OS, menu keyboard commands are as common as possible across the OS and most apps. They also do not require a modifier key to get to them. If you want to copy something, you just press Command+C. The menu never even opens, much less blinks.

Believe me, once you get the most common keystrokes memorized and the muscle memory of your hands down, mousing to the menus is slow in comparison. My left hand is practically glued to the keyboard and performs at least half, if not more of the commands in the menus.

to add to that I've watched talented software designers not get a second interview because they didn't know the keyboard layout for Quark or Creative Cloud or the like. Crazy as that sounds they are viewed as deadline liabilities to some professional designers I've worked with.

Well, as mentioned earlier, it's been part of the Mac OS since day one. The odds that Apple will ever remove it is essentially zero.

However, back in the days of OS 9 and earlier, you could choose in the settings for 1, 2, or 3 blinks. One then essentially meant select and go.

So it comes back to feedback. Submit a request to control the menu select option. There's really nothing else you can do other than get used to it. Because really, why are you watching it? If you don't keep your eyes glued to that spot once you release the mouse button, you don't really even notice the blinks.

I didn't say you don't have to wait until the blinking stops before the OS or app performs the action, I said you don't have to just sit and watch it.

When I release the mouse button off the menu item I want, or click on the choice, I'm already moving my eyes away from the menu back to the work area. By the time I use that quarter second or less to reset my focus, the command has been executed, and I don't even notice it blinked.

Basically, stop focusing on the menu so much.

Hi Monday9June. If you take the time to learn and use keyboard shortcuts you'll be much more efficient.

Mac keyboard shortcuts - Apple Support

For menu items that don't have a keyboard shortcut, you can create your own.

OS X Yosemite: Create keyboard shortcuts for apps

Monday9June wrote:

 

Sometimes I do have to wait till the blinking has finished. For example: when switching between 2 different Safari windows.  It is highly annoying.

To switch between Safari windows using a keyboard, hold down the Command key and tap the grave accent key (`) to the left of the 1 key. You can also use Mission Control/App Exposé with either a keyboard or trackpad. To see all Safari windows using a keyboard, press the Control-Down Arrow keys, navigate to a window to highlight with either the arrow keys or trackpad/mouse, and press the Return key. If using a trackpad, swipe down with three fingers (or four, depending upon the setup in System Preferences).

OS X Yosemite: Zoom to Mission Control

Safari 8 (Yosemite): Safari keyboard and other shortcuts

Note: as a caution, backup your drive before running any commands in Terminal.

If you prefer to use Mission Control/App Exposé, you can speed up the animation with a Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.dock expose-animation-duration -float 0.1; killall Dock

To return to the default:

defaults delete com.apple.dock expose-animation-duration; killall Dock

To turn off the animation completely, use -float 0.

I realize none of the above addresses your issue directly, but from a pragmatic standpoint, it's more useful to engage in what you can control rather than be annoyed by what likely will never change.

You want Finder version 3... or so: