True, the final part of the sync is slow regardless of the hardware, but switching USB ports helps. Blocks after 2023 are the wall (65% to 100%), and spam is the cause. So, I’m running Knots and signaling Bip-110.
I’m a little confused. So a USB 2.0 is faster than USB 3.0 in this case?
Yes, in this case (Raspberry Pi 5 + external SSD) “stable” 2.0 USB is better than “fast” 3.0 USB. 
For the IBD, in my experience, the 2.0 USB port fixes the hardware problem.