It's my understanding that Saurik is extremely busy trying to get Cydia updated for iOS4.2. He's probably not making any money or only a little money for all his efforts..
I concur that Cydia can be slow. I usually make it a point connecting to Wi-Fi before opening it. I get really impatient when it's updating. However, I am extremely grateful that it exists and look forward to the updated version.
Without Cydia we would be like android, with repos scattered all over hells half acres. Yes, there are other repos, but most of the best apps and repos are on Cydia.