I would love to do multicolor or multimaterial printing, but there’s no alternative to the AMS right now. I also feel like the “right way” to do this is how the Prusa XL does it, which is multiple extruders. This cuts down significantly on the amount of waste, though the quality of the AMS approach still seems to be better for now. Granted, I haven’t actually needed to print multiple colors or materials yet, so it’s not really a big deal.

Not OP, but I chose not to go Bambu because of the closed ecosystem. I like that they’re enabling custom firmware now, but they presented as very closed and proprietary, including network printing going through their cloud. While I’m not printing anything sensitive, I could see that being a concern for some, especially if you’re designing your own prints. I get that they’re the turnkey solution that “just works” out of the box, but so do my Qidi X-Plus 3 printers, and I can SSH into them if I want.

There’s a lot that goes into the print speed, including volumetric flow (measured in mm^3/s) and minimum layer time, used for allowing layers to cool enough before printing the next one so the print doesn’t end up a blob. You want to slice the object and then look at where the speed changes in the preview. That will give you an idea of what’s happening. It could also be down to the settings Cura uses for PETG.