[crazygringo]

But what you're describing as "gaming" is precisely the behavior this is supposed to incentivize.

Of course you should be setting a visual "in progress" state before you send out a request. And yes that's supposed to be instantaneous, not measured in "X or Y seconds". That's the entire point, to acknowledge that the user did something so they know they clicked in the right place, that another app hadn't stolen keyboard focus, etc.