I've been encoutering the same issue. Even when monitoring the live log, it takes a couple of minutes for the first ‘action’ to appear.
Yep, this takes up a long time. The best way to speed it up is to do everything local when possible. Only deploy to the cloud when necessary.
I'm assuming this has to do with free cloud configuration. Slower connections, lower priority resources etc all saves up money. And of course offering a limited product for free nudges you to purchase a license for the premium experience.
Same thing happenned to me yesterday, but I had 2 different results with 2 different apps. One responded within 1 or 2 minutes and the other probably longer than 10 minutes. I believe it’s down to how busy are the nodes where the apps are hosted.