Yes there are UI and UX choices which make it feel less sluggish, which is an important thing to do and e.g. Windows could certainly stand to improve there.
But in terms of wallclock time "less sluggish" just translates to it takes longer but you don't notice as much. Maybe the file copy takes 18 seconds but feels butter smooth, in contrast to this alternative where it took 14 seconds but wasn't nice - so for 4 extra seconds you get buttery smooth delay. Those seconds add up.
Come to think of it, I haven’t used an OS that could match the accuracy, speed, or most importantly utility of BeOS’ active queries since 2001.