Performing the following (note the range of 10,000):

`importmulti '[{"desc": "sh(wpkh([aeee1e6a/49h/1h/0h]tpubDC5bVdaveQYxGFztMShFAjU637kKjrs9FD8ne1oHR7z8tLeQJExsaxWRVeSpcCcYMdp5ecf2LQhuVaeYFZ7YEpvWTJr4nDGUJrmuvLuTSsp/1/*))", "keypool": true, "timestamp": "now", "watchonly": true, "internal": true, "range": {"end": 1000}}]' '{"rescan": false}'`

takes many minutes. @achow101 reports a similar import taking 6 minutes on his machine.
{
    LOCK(cs_wallet);
    assert(m_max_keypool_index < std::numeric_limits<int64_t>::max()); 
    int64_t index = ++m_max_keypool_index;
    if (!batch.WritePool(index, CKeyPool(pubkey, internal))) {
        throw std::runtime_error(std::string(__func__) + ": writing imported pubkey failed");
    }
    if (internal) {
        setInternalKeyPool.insert(index);
    } else {
        setExternalKeyPool.insert(index);
    }
    m_pool_key_to_index[pubkey.GetID()] = index;
}
bool CWallet::ReserveKeyFromKeyPool(int64_t& nIndex, CKeyPool& keypool, bool fRequestedInternal)
{
    nIndex = -1;
    keypool.vchPubKey = CPubKey();
    {
        LOCK(cs_wallet);
        if (!IsLocked())
            TopUpKeyPool();
        bool fReturningInternal = fRequestedInternal;
        fReturningInternal &= (IsHDEnabled() && CanSupportFeature(FEATURE_HD_SPLIT)) || IsWalletFlagSet(WALLET_FLAG_DISABLE_PRIVATE_KEYS);
        bool use_split_keypool = set_pre_split_keypool.empty();