Slow Startup on Empty Expo React Native iOS App

I created expo project using npx create-expo-app and built a production build and submitted it to App Store using EAS.
The app launches right away most of the time but sometimes it takes a while to launch as shown in .gif file:

Expo SDK: 49

Node: 16

Platforms: Tested on different iPhone models and iOS versions.

JS Engine: Hermes. I am not specifying the engine in app.json/app.config.js as it is the default engine.

Project dependencies:

"dependencies": {
    "expo": "~49.0.15",
    "expo-status-bar": "~1.6.0",
    "react": "18.2.0",
    "react-native": "0.72.6"
},
"devDependencies": {
    "@babel/core": "^7.20.0"
}

I tried in another app to have a splash screen to fix this delay, but still the app icon freezes before opening the app.

I am very disappointed by this. Is this normal for any expo app? Is it worth it to optimize the performance or just go native swift?