Why go back if you can go forwards?
After reading your post again, there may be 2 separate issues.
The Footprint Wizard hanging is one, but the other is (If I read you correctly) the slow starting of the Footprint Editor itself.
This is an issue which also affects me.
I noticed that there is a short burst in which all processor cores get activated, and for the rest of the 30+ seconds, loading of the Footprint Editor only runs on one core.
Do you have the same symptoms?
More about it here:
[Edit:]
I have not yet made a bug report about this, as I thought the multi-threading issue may be a Linux issue instead of KiCad. If you can confirm it also happens on Mac, then it is a step further in narrowing down the cause of this bug.
If it’s the same bug, then please copy your full KiCad version info here from:
KiCad / Help / About KiCAd / Copy Version Info
and then post it here.