I think you may have a problem somewhere on your system and a reinstall / repair of Cubase may help. Also check your anti-virus as mentioned above. I have a six year old i5 Win10 PC and a lot of VST’s as well - ( a lot is vague, but Komplete 12 Ultimate and Arturia V, Korg Collection and a dozen or so other suites / sets.)
And Cubase 12 loads in about 20-30 seconds.
If you are running Windows, this post from August may be of interest, and a lot of the advice will be relevant on a Mac.