I realize some hate it, but I love Season 3's pacing. I think it's very clear Lynch (and probably Frost's) take forever getting to the stuff people wanted on purpose, and not to wallow in it or nostalgia. It was a lot of fun watching live and discussing with people, to the point I'd say wstching it live with people was one of my favorite televised "experiences" ever. I think everything was paced very well for what Season 3 is, but S3 was not what everyone wanted or expected. I know this wasn't really Lynch's or Mark's intent on this following point, but Season 3 works beautifully as a modern deconstruction of revivals, remakes, people over-analyzing, and how we consume media in the current age (how we're used to immediate reward and easily consumable things, answers to every question which we can search online for, and shortening attention spans in the online era). Unintentional as it is, it's kinda' hilarious how the first episode is some glacial build-up to a guy watching an empty box all day and then when getting into the "Glass Box and Chill" phase with his girl, he misses the most important moment he's been waiting for and then gets murdered. It's actually almost too good an allegory for the whole entire season.
I think it was very much the intent to not give people exactly what they wanted, but I think what Season 3 happens to be is utterly fascinating and unlike anything else. And I think it's sometimes glacial pace does actually contribute towards it. More so, I think there's a lot of the show that is actually truly excellent even if not what people wanted. I remember when it was going live, people were so frustrated with Dougie for example, but frankly Dougie's whole story arc in the series I think is very well done. Likewise, while a lot of things are raised and never answered, I think there's some wonderful payoff to some threads, like what's happening to Laura's mother and with Diane.
I also did a complete series re-watch and I think Season 3 fits near perfectly to the rest of the series. This will sound weird, but the second half of Season 2 I never have disliked as much as other people (though the Jame's subplot is legitimately terrible). I do agree it gets better once the story starts picking up closer to the Season 2 finale, but I kinda' enjoy some of the plot threads and generally the weird antics of that part of the series. However, it contrasts almost perfectly with the third season in a way I think is enjoyable. We go from kinda' seeing too much of the characters in Season 2's second half to almost too little. For example, I sorta' miss the Sheriff's department in the third season, it's in the third season but it as a setting and it's characters are in the background a lot until towards the very end (and even then, Sheriff Truman missing is felt). But then there's almost too much of the Sheriff's station and its characters in the Season 2 lull doing their shenanigans, so going from that to Season 3 has this interesting effect on the show as a cohesive whole where the station sorta' gets this shadow cast over it (both literally and figuratively). It's old and empty feeling, there's something's wrong with it in the third season from what we've known of it (corruption in a literal sense, but the whole town of TP in the third season has "something wrong with it"). Its absence contributes to the build-up at the end of Season 3 when shit begins going down at the station, and the contrast of going from the cheery abudence of the station in the second season heading into the third season gives this unnatural ominous feel. And a lot of the brief snippets we see of the old cast feel like cap-offs in a similar vein to FWWM's Missing Pieces scenes (actually it's interesting how it's some of the same characters we see before and after briefly between FWWN as a prologue and Season 3 as a time jump) in a positive way. It's a bit hard to put into words, but I think Season 3 works very well as the sorta' series conclusion, and I think brings something new to the series at a juncture when the show needed it after the Season 2 lull, as it really changes up the pace and the slowburn pacing gives it this sometimes incredibly menacing feeling and almost like something is slowly boiling. As there was a 25 year gap, it's easy to want the thing you already knew you liked/loved, but Season 3 I think works better to the work as a whole and helps elevate the earlier seasons rather than moving forward maintaining the same tone (which the series needed after Season 2).
Weird thoughts, I know. But rewatching the whole series, including Fire Walk With Me and the Missing Pieces, cemented this is my favorite show. And I think Season 3 works really well with Season 1 & 2, and more so Fire Walk With Me kinda' works as a good transition piece going from the Season 2 lull to Season 3, especially with the Missing Pieces additions, as Fire Walk With Me is like half-way between what the original series was and what Season 3 is.