You are correct, it is not a fair comparison but not for these reasons. The fact is your processor will finish constructing this simple vector long before the bitmap has downloaded even on a T3 connection. Second, vectors are used to construct very complex images. The Jurassic Park Dinosaurs and all the other 3D special effects are vector-based graphics. Bitmap images are great for real life images such as photographs of people or for graphic artists that wish to use a paint style interface.
Vectors are best just about everywhere else.
They are extremely compact and can be used to construct very complex images. Vector graphics have another powerful advantage over bitmap graphics. This is the ability to change them very fast. In the above example, you can replace one of the coordinates of the vector with as little as 4 to 16 bytes. With a few extra bytes to identify the operation, you can completely redraw the entire vector.