Why are cubemaps so slow?

So, I’ve recently been making a few personal use cubemaps and I’ve come across the issues that the engine cannot seem to handle their existence very well. For example, I tried importing 18 cubemaps into the engine at once. Not, you know, actually using them for anything yet, but just importing them, and it took 2 hours to do so. 2 hours. And heaven forbid I want to open them or right click on them. What is wrong with the engine to be having this happen? Its the same on at least 4.6 and 4.7, havent tried earlier versions but I doubt much will be different.

How large of resolution?

6144x1024 Its what I saw someone on a youtube tutorial using.