Is it really worth it?

The delays are not due to jailbreaking. Simply unlocking the file system slows nothing down.

It's apps that are installed that can have an effect.... though I'd say you really must have gone awry to be seeing a 3 second delay. My iPhone 4 has quite a few of jb apps, that hook into the core OS, and it is not slow.

What I DON'T do is install Winterboard or other theming crap. I could probably do that if I only wanted to theme. But to do that and install a bunch of apps will slow things down. But it's not jailbreaking that did it... it's the fault of the user who installed all that stuff.

All that said jailbreaking 3.2.2 is not worth it to me when I am running 4.2 GM. Most everything I would be jailbreaking for I already have in 4.2--though I sorely miss SBSettings and a few other tools.

Michael