I would assume it's the same time range for consistency. There's never gonna be a perfect time for everyone, and switching it around would be difficult to implement.
Yeah, it's lagging horribly for me at the character creation screen too. I wanted to make a new toon, but there's no way I can suffer through the time it will take me. It usually takes me a bit to get someone just right as it is, I'm sure it will take days with 1-2 FPS. I haven't logged into the game to play with…