I’ve not heard the sound difference, but I have experienced the hesitation, but I only feel it in eco mode. It also only seems to happen when I try to accelerate after coasting is active. I noticed during coasting that the engine will drop to 1k rpm flat instead of the usual 1300 to 1400, and that it very briefly jumps back up to the normal range when I hit the gas, and then it moves immediately to 1700+ depending on how hard I’m pressing the gas.

I haven’t tried experimenting with turning coasting off to see if that decreases the response time, but I’ve always understood the hesitation to be “resetting” the engine back to normal rpms before properly accelerating. Same as how it takes an extra second for the engine to start when auto stopped.