The lawsuit was filed in August of last year, and arguments in court spanned most of May (and were conducted in-person, not virtually), and then the judge issued her decision today. That's not exactly lightning quick.
The rate at which court cases proceed really depends a lot on the complexity of the case, the length of the discovery phase, etc. Both Apple and Epic didn't want to have a jury trial, so there also wasn't the matter of empaneling a jury.
It took over a year for this ruling to come out. Also, this was a bench trial as opposed to a jury trial, which also makes it faster.
Of course, what really makes court cases take very long is when they get appealed to hell and back -- see Google v Oracle for an example of such a case.
(And this is a final order, so it can get appealed).
Online court systems are here to stay. They're much more efficient than traditional in-person court, both in terms of overall time spent and in manpower.
There are still a lot of kinks to work out, such as how to handle court decorum & technological disparities such as low availability of high speed internet and good quality camera systems/lighting/privacy.
Personally I think the federal government should contract for an app other than Zoom because if I had to go to trial I wouldn't feel very comfortable knowing it was all being hosted by a private company, but that's a minor gripe.
Is this something that can get appealed?