It's not as exaggerated as you might believe. Vision BASIC does produce faster executables than all the legacy BASIC compilers. And even faster than the MOSpeed cross-compiler, from what I've seen.
And it's sold surprisingly well for a modern-day C64 product, a BASIC programming language no less. Can you get much more niche than that?
No, it's not for folks like you who've settled into fast and efficient workflows long ago. Once you've driven a modern car with power windows, power steering, power mirrors, power everything... why would you want to go back to driving a car without all those amenities?
And yet... some people still love to drive antique cars. It's a lifestyle choice. The difference, though, is that Vision BASIC doesn't produce slow antique code!