In Windows file permissions are not dynamically inherited. That is, when an attempt is made to open a file Windows only looks at the ACL of that file and not at the ACLs of the directories in the tree containing the file. That means when you change the ACL of a directory Windows has to immediately update the permissions of all files and subdirectories within the affected directory.
In Windows the inherit setting in an ACL does not indicate any form of dynamic inheritance. It is just a flag to indicate that when a parent directory’s ACL is modified all files and subdirectories in the tree that have the inherit flag set must also be updated.
Those of us old enough to remember Novell NetWare will remember this was one of the big differences from NetWare because in NetWare inheritance of permissions is (was?) dynamic. There was much debate at the time about which approach was better, though history has rendered the issue moot. Dynamic ACLs require the OS to check the ACLs of every parent directory at the time an attempt is made to open the file, but changing ACLs is quick. In Windows opening file requires only a single ACL to be checked, but as you’ve found it means changing a directory ACL can be slow.