When I opened up the center console, I found the microswitch for the gear lever, and there's wiring that goes up into the steering wheel to the buttons. So they are operating off the same line. I'm not entirely sure how it's set up in your haltech, but it'd be safe to assume the same mechanism used to shift gears on the lever is the same as the steering wheel buttons. Not doubting what you're saying, just trying to understand for my benefit why it'd be the case that the buttons should be quicker.
By the way, anyone here running a MV Automatics shift kit? I'm sick of the flare up between gears, and that'll definately be the next mod I do to the car.