Tags in active fandoms generally wrangle fast. Tags in unwatched fandoms can take awhile, but those are usually small enough it's not really needed. New fandom tags are pretty fast unless they're tricky, and automation wouldn't solve tricky cases.
Non-fandom tags are never because we don't have a set of guidelines for them and nobody can agree on how to make more. That's also not solvable by automation.
(Basically, people power is not the bottleneck here, we have to turn volunteers away, it's project management.)
Re: hot takes ao3 edition
Tags in active fandoms generally wrangle fast.
Tags in unwatched fandoms can take awhile, but those are usually small enough it's not really needed.
New fandom tags are pretty fast unless they're tricky, and automation wouldn't solve tricky cases.
Non-fandom tags are never because we don't have a set of guidelines for them and nobody can agree on how to make more. That's also not solvable by automation.
(Basically, people power is not the bottleneck here, we have to turn volunteers away, it's project management.)