> I know xterm is the slowest of the bunch, but it always works with minimal putzing.

I though that Xterm was the fastest in terms of latency and configured adequately, pretty going dealing with big amounts of text:

https://anarc.at/blog/2018-05-04-terminal-emulators-2/

Xterm*fastScroll: true

I am really grateful for Xterm, it is a great default for all my machines.