Jon:
I find it extremely frustrating where the designers of products make a product, such the example you cited, where you press a switch and it takes a second for the system to react. That is actually poor user interface design if the system reaction time is so long. In my experience it is best if the reaction time of a system to a switch is less than 120 milliseconds. Any slower and almost any system will feel extremely sluggish.
Michael Karas