Why Does the Gmail App Suck?

I have two email accounts: one work exchange account and a personal Gmail account. I came from a blackberry 9930 to the gs3, obviously overall there is no comparison between the two. Except for one thing: Gmail. On the BB, Gmail worked well. While not technically push the gmail imap interfaced well with the BB, and I got emails pretty much instantaneously. By contrast, the BB was much slower with the exchange account, and emails usually took 15 min to land on the BB (although the BB exchange interface was otherwise reliable).

Strangely, the gs3 is just about opposite. It handles the exchange account with aplomb, and is a true push service. But the gmail app sucks ! It gets email a lot slower than the BB did. Sometimes it's like the phone goes into a dead zone for hours and it doesn't get gmail emails (although everything else works fine) and then all of a sudden the gmail app realizes it exists and downloads a dozen emails at once. Sometimes, the app will tell me I have a new email but it refuses to download it. Gmail=Google. Android=Google. Gmail app=Google.

I don't get it. Google should have this app suitcased but it sucks. Why?