How often do you create a branch?
As a reference for performance, it takes me only 7 minutes to download a complete new branch with 2 GB and 27,000 files. And my source code is on the internet in the Microsoft TFS cloud service. So if you are getting 15 minutes, you may have network
or server issues.
But regardless, I admit that is an annoying delay. But you only have to do that once, when a branch is created.. Later, during development, when you get latest version, it should be much quicker for just changes.
At work, we only branch once a month. So waiting 10 minutes once a month for a developer is not a problem. You just go get a drink of water, or go to a meeting. And you are done when you return. How often do you branch? That is the key to how big an issue
this is in real life.