It’s absolutely blue bubble exceptionalism and both Apple and Google are to blame. Google couldn’t focus on a single messaging strategy and has created and destroyed half a dozen workable cross-platform messaging solutions. Meanwhile, Apple did and pushed iPhone users into its walled garden while Europeans turned to Whatsapp which has the virtue of being multi-platform but it’s owned by Meta which has its own set of problems.
RCS might’ve worked out if Google had just cut the carriers out from the beginning. It’s not even that great of a protocol but it’s probably the only one likely to supplant SMS as the lowest common denominator if Google gets its way with regulators and forces Apple to play along. It doesn’t benefit Apple to bother until they’re forced to.
Short answer, maybe, but go through your installed apps first & get rid of crap you don’t use. Even if you still decide to do a factory reset, no sense re-downloading garbage apps. Your phone is still modern enough it shouldn’t feel slow day-to-day so it’s probably one or more shitty apps causing the problem.