fetch_feed Performance Issue

The performance issue of fetching that amount of feeds from external sites is not related with WordPress at all, but it can be solved in WordPress easily.

  1. Set up a escheduled event that fecth the feeds, one by one could be better.
  2. Disable WP Cron for users and set it up to run using a server cron job.

This way, you fetch the feeds in the background and serve the data without blocking the user experience.