This is speaking from a Windows 11 perspective. When LS 5 was first released, I could double click the icon, wait like 2 seconds for LS to open, then immediately start working.

Right now LS still opens up in a comparable timeframe, but there is a period of time (maybe 20 seconds?) where LS is completely unresponsive (including the various pop up windows e.g. version updates and home screen). I personally would rather have a splash screen with a loading bar while LS initialized than to have it open up unresponsive for some indeterminate amount of time. Or if it is running things in the background, if they are non-critical than they should be non-blocking.