round trips are just slow.
like compare a normal game of ping-pong with a player on each side of the table,
with a game where all players just stood on the same side, and hit balls over the net as fast as they could.
the second one could be way faster, because your not waiting for anyone to return the ball.
extending this metaphore, node is like a great ping pong player,
10x better than the next player.
but not because node can hit the ball 10 times faster,
but rather they because they can play 10 regular games of ping pong at once.