I think the reason that the liftgate is designed to not open instantly like the doors is so that you don't accidentally trigger it. Unlike accidentally unlocking the doors (say by hitting the wrong button), the liftgate could be damaged if there is an obstacle in the way. There has been more than one occasion where I hit the wrong button (attempting to unlock the doors, but actually hitting the liftgate button) or hit the liftgate button on the fob inadvertantly when playing around with it in my hand and worried that I may have smashed the liftgate into the back of my garage. In these cases I have been very happy that it is not an instant open function.

All that being said, I still have not mastered the > 1.5 sec but < 3 sec technique to avoid setting off the alarm. The design is terrible. I too have comfort access and pretty much always just use the soft open feature on the handle for the same reasons as rh71. Why not just put an extra panic button on the fob or better yet have a two button sequence like how many cell phones need to be keylocked. At the very least they could spread out the timing so that panic engages after (say) 5 seconds.