For us in the third world it is! As an example, in my country of residence, a non-national needs to wait more than a year to even get to an interview with a US consul.

Year or longer waits for B visas are common in India. Part of the problem is the statutory requirement that first-time applicants need an in-person interview. When I worked in a US consulate in India, we would have loved to have lowered the age at which we could waive interviews from 80 to 70 or even 65, but that would have required action in DC. We also would have loved to have had more staff, but were limited by the amount of diplomatic positions the Indian government would approve.