In embedded, software developers are always running up against the bean-counters trying to get the BOM cost lower. You can pretty much expect an underpowered SoC.

It's the job of embedded developers to work with the constraints. This isn't end consumer hardware. The cost of the device is multiplied by the number of cars shipped. So you keep it as low as you can.

You have a budget of cycles between display refreshes. Often the perception of slowness is not that the throughput of the software is too much for the hardware, it's that the work is done in the wrong place or wrong time. It's that the budget was poorly allocated -- work was done in the wrong thread or on the wrong core or in the wrong loop or at the wrong time.

All of this to say the perception of bad performance on these type of devices can honestly just come down to sloppy programming, not the power of the device.

Because in the end, what are they actually doing? Mostly just moving stuff around on the screen. The thing isn't computing a giant spreadsheet or blockchain crap. It's telling the MCU in the climate system to turn on.

So you learn how your display controller works, and you optimize optimize optimize.