@TsundereMuse So it's a Microsoft server side issue. Good to know. Joking aside, when player vending was shut off last October, I experienced zero lag. I honestly thought for a time it was an issue tied to bot players using dupe glitches, as the player shops had weird stacks of AC items that would have been impossible otherwise. I also thought it might be just bot related in general.
But with what you just said, it would appear I was wrong.
It's appears as though it's potentially a Microsoft server side issue, and now I'm wondering if Microsoft has been either having issues with keeping live service running, or if they limit user traffic in some way. Either way, it's weird that the issue is happening to begin with.
(Edited for clarification, as a way of explaining earlier view points, posted elsewhere on the forums. )