Connected objects are 20x slower in Excel 2019 than 2010 - excel

Question

In general, Excel 2019 is around twice slower than Excel 2010 on the same hardware. That factor is fine because the hardware improvement more than compensates.
However, I noticed that the use of connected objects is around 20 times slower in Excel 2019 than 2010. The problem is not in memory allocation and release, but in the handling of connected objects. In the example shown below, the object has just one member, of the same type. A chained series of such an object takes 4 seconds to build with Excel 2010 and 100 with Excel 2019 (x 25) on my current computer (Dell XPS 5). Hopefully, it is possible to have both versions on the same machine. The memory release is slower by a similar ratio.
Specifically the example has two modules:
A class module "SmallListItem" with this code:
Public NextItem As SmallListItem
And a standard module with the following code:
' measure the time taken to allocate the list and delete it
Public Sub TimeForAllSizes()
Dim r As Range
Dim i As Integer, maxI As Integer
Dim first As SmallListItem
Dim startTime As Single, elapsedTime As Single
Set r = Range("LengthTimeRange")
Let maxI = r.Rows.Count
Call Range(r.Cells(1, 2), r.Cells(maxI, 3)).ClearContents
Let i = 1
Do
' build object
Let startTime = Timer()
Set first = BuildList(r.Cells(i, 1).Value)
Let elapsedTime = Timer() - startTime
Let r.Cells(i, 2).Value = elapsedTime
' release object
Let startTime = Timer()
Call ReleaseList(first)
Let elapsedTime = elapsedTime + Timer() - startTime
Let r.Cells(i, 3).Value = Timer() - startTime
Let i = i + 1
Loop Until i > maxI Or elapsedTime > 100
Call MsgBox("Done!")
End Sub
' build list of SmallListItem
Private Function BuildList(ByVal length As Long) As SmallListItem
Dim j As Long
Dim index As SmallListItem
Set index = New SmallListItem
Set BuildList = index
For j = 1 To length - 1
Set index.NextItem = New SmallListItem
Set index = index.NextItem
Next j
End Function
' deletes memory connected to first
Private Sub ReleaseList(ByRef first As SmallListItem)
Dim index As SmallListItem, prec As SmallListItem
Set index = first
' go to the end and release the preceding item
Do Until index.NextItem Is Nothing
Set prec = index
Set index = index.NextItem
Set prec.NextItem = Nothing
Loop
Set first = Nothing
End Sub
The spreadsheet has just one named range, visible below (the button triggers the macro TimeForAllSizes):
I tried finding workarounds, but wasn't able.
The run time ratio of x25 makes the user experience very different. That macro is several times faster on my previous computer with Excel 2010 than on my current one with Excel 2019.