Windows NT on 600MHz machine opens apps instantly. What happened?

Windows NT 3.51 min specs: 25MHz CPU, 16MB memory (for the server edition), 90MB disk space

Windows 11 min specs: 1GHz 64-bit CPU, 4 GB RAM, 64GB disk space.

This is a horribly unfair comparison. We were complaining about systems being slow AF back then too. (Insert _turbo button_ meme here)

That's true, during the time I had a 486 SX 33 with 4 MB and 200 MB HDD. Windows 3.1 ran fine, I tried OS/2 Warp and it was unbearably slow. Never tested Windows 95 on that computer but of course NT was completely out-of-reach. On the other hand "NT" was unusable for anything fun until XP.

Still, there's a point to make about bloat but the comparison seems to be between Apples and Oranges

Windows 2000 used to run lots of games.

Also, you have a compat mode for w95/98 a la Windows XP prompt, but only for desktop shortcuts.