We've tested over 1 million files in a directory... with less than 60seconds to list all.Appreciate you taking the time to reply, Captain, but as mentioned, I did not test things thoroughly - and I probably shouldn't have posted my comment re: performance, it is meaningless without the elements you've pointed out.
I do have a specific system I'm curious to benchmark (but only when 24.04.1 arrives: this one is somewhat critical), and where users insist on saving tens of thousands of files in the same folder - high water mark was a bit over 98,000 - despite my tech advice not to do so, just split them into subfolders (life would be so much simpler without users...). I must confess that the blog post mentioning much increased folder performance in such cases brought a smile to my face...
But don't try to use a Mac.... Linux and windows only.