I never felt the controls where shitty, it just felt like jumping needed some foresight and that was part of the fun, just like jumping in real life requires you to bend down your knees first before actually getting some air; even in modern games I get that feeling, like how in Dark Souls you have to time the parry and pressing the button does not instantly makes the shield teleport in front of the character.
I guess you're right but in PoP it feels more like an arbitrary latency that you were required to learn. OTOH I guess I was spoiled by games like Super Mario World (the very first videogame I ever played), where jumps are instantaneous.
