Back of envelope: With running status, a note on message is two bytes on a 31250 baud connection. That means the latency from transport is on the order of half a millisecond. If you’re feeling latency, it’s in the gear, not the protocol. MIDI implementation quality has long been wildly inconsistent, and I don’t see a reason to believe that will change with MIDI 2.0.
> That means the latency from transport is on the order of half a millisecond. If you’re feeling latency, it’s in the gear, not the protocol.
As long as you don't transmit anything else. When you have 16 channels with many note and controller messages, latency and asynchronicity between channels can become noticeable.
I remember using 8x8 midi interfaces to get around some of that - not just for the additional midi channels, but also to thin out the traffic for each connection. i.e. each midi channel would get it's own cable/connection.
However that approach didn't work when I wanted to send 16 channels to a single (non USB) multi instrument sound device like my trusty JV-1080. It became an excuse to buy more synths! :-)