Funny how "waiting" has this effect on us.
Spot on. When sitting down and doing the math, the time spent here is nothing. But from user experience perspective, it feels strange...
I was in the industry of developing retail websites. If the website were not showing any change when doing it's job (placing order, searching, etc.), users often feel there's something wrong. A spinner or a progress bar helps. But the things that worked best are the "dirty tricks" on animations. Like fading in the menu, some fancy transitions...etc.