The appendix "why latency matters" is interesting but a more current example is VR headsets where latency in adjusting the display to track head motion is directly proportional to sea sickness symptoms.
The dreaded standard HN automobile analogy is latency is like turbo boost lag where you stomp on the gas pedal on my wife's Prius and it spins the tires instantly (well, anti-spin kicks in instantly anyway), whereas my uncle had a turbo Firebird in the mid 80s, stomp the gas pedal and like 3 seconds later the turbo spins up like a sci fi warp drive and kicks you in the butt, but for the first 3 seconds it almost feels like the car stalled, kinda weird. Obviously its been over three decades so possibly the latency on a turbo Firebird was 2 seconds or 5 seconds, it doesn't really matter beyond the point that it dramatically affects drivability.
Modern turbo engines are much better but there's nothing like an electric drive train for responsiveness. The difference is that the users actually fell in love with some of the quirks unlike with latency. Petrol heads like to master things like double clutching and heel and toe downshifting and have fun doing them even though they're just ways to get smoothness despite the limitations of the drive train.
The dreaded standard HN automobile analogy is latency is like turbo boost lag where you stomp on the gas pedal on my wife's Prius and it spins the tires instantly (well, anti-spin kicks in instantly anyway), whereas my uncle had a turbo Firebird in the mid 80s, stomp the gas pedal and like 3 seconds later the turbo spins up like a sci fi warp drive and kicks you in the butt, but for the first 3 seconds it almost feels like the car stalled, kinda weird. Obviously its been over three decades so possibly the latency on a turbo Firebird was 2 seconds or 5 seconds, it doesn't really matter beyond the point that it dramatically affects drivability.