Rickochet
I hear ya. My last year at the public club (which is just a mile up the road and super convenient, nice layout, very affordable, usually in decent condition) - me and my group went out at 8:30 a.m. on a Saturday. They'd put an outing out first thing that morning, 40 players ahead of us. When we holed our puts out on the 10th green, it was 11:45.
Took that group 3 hours to play 9 holes. I just took my bag off my cart, walked back to the parking lot and left. I swore that day that I'd never again deal with that. I love my golf experience too much to endure that degree of frustration. But they just refused to confront slow groups because they were afraid to turn off players from never coming back. But what they didn't understand that by enabling that environment - they were losing business... guys like me, groups like ours, who would go in after the round and drink a few beers and have lunch - they lost that part of their business that was most profitable.
Very next year I joined a private club.
Even though it was 15 miles away, it was still like heaven to me. Went from averaging a 5:15 round the year prior to actually being able to finish 18 holes the following year at the private club, sit at the bar and have lunch, and walking through the door at the house roughly 5 hours later.
Not sure I could tolerate that anymore, even if I couldn't afford a private club. I'd rather not play than deal with that.