What OS did you use? I use mine with Phosh (tested Mobian and Archlinux) and I don't have the same experience at all.
The device is still severely underpowered though so the Pro version with a much better CPU is a welcome change.
Can confirm that the Arch build for my pinephone performed significantly better than the default KDE rom that shipped with my device. Vibration, lights, volume & volume rockers, responsiveness, calls, keyboard etc - all mostly working on the arch release.
But I 100% agree - the device is just too slow for me. Would love the increased RAM and extra CPU power.