We didn't worry whether the car could maneuver, whether it could stop quickly, how far it could run on a tank of gas. We didn't realize that designing a car around brute speed might eliminate more useful attributes. So it is with network service today. In fact, the one critical measure for a user is response time. Equating bandwidth with performance can actually exacerbate the problem with response time.
Any spare capacity is money the provider is leaving on the table.
Users tend to take advantage of all the bandwidth at their disposal, so the network will operate at close to full capacity. And a heavily loaded network that encounters a problem produces response times that are like, well, Manhattan in a rainstorm at rush hour. The real answer for reducing response time, or latency, is to make it the primary measure of service that Internet access providers charge for. The providers will go ahead and build big pipes but will then manage their networks so people don't use all the capacity. If the network operators won't switch to latency measures on their own, then their customers must insist.