Will a Micro Swiss extruder and hotend speed up prints on my Ender 3 Pro? Long story for hopefully a simple yes/no answer:
I have a lightly modified Ender 3 Pro (BLTouch, glass bed, beefier bed springs and nobs, led lights) and I daydream about someday getting an &quot;Ender Extender&quot; kit to go larger or something, but before I ever do that I need to drastically speed up the prints.  Last night the first layer on one of my prints took 40 minutes and I watched the whole time to make sure it laid down well.  Can't imagine waiting around with a larger build surface.  I understand basic settings like lighter infill/less perimeters/etc... but when it comes to really changing the speed and acceleration settings I'm a bit of a newb.
So after reading this article on improving print speeds, it seems like the Bowden tube style default extruder on my Ender 3 probably doesn't have the grip strength and/or constrained filament path to really push filament faster.
Based on that same article and this one, it seems like there are a lot of options for extruders and hotends to upgrade.  The reason the Micro Swiss appealed to me is that it seems like this option is pretty much bolt-on plug and play (additional info here).
And it seems like it already has a convenient spot for my BLTouch.
Which brings me to the title of my question:  will that Micro Swiss extruder/hotend combo do what I think it'll do?  i.e. allow me to push filament faster and heat it up quicker?
Is there a better alternative extruder/hotend that is also pretty easy to figure out?
Lastly (maybe this should be a different question/too open-ended) are there other relatively simple upgrades/modifications to the Ender 3 Pro that will help it print faster?
If you want a single word answer, then no.
Before you ask this question you need to figure out why your prints are slower than you want them to be. With default settings, unless your models are something dead simple like a big cube or cylinder, you're almost certainly limited by acceleration, not extrusion rate or even max print/travel speed (which you'll almost never achieve). Gcode analysis tools like gcodeanalyser.com will help you gauge this by predicting actual speeds the printer will achieve. Note that even if your model is simple, printing infill and top/bottom layers involves a lot of acceleration/deceleration cycles, so even for simple models this may still be your limiting factor.
Until you reach very high accelerations (over 5000 mm/s²) letting you actually achieve very high speeds (over 150 mm/s or so), the only way to make extrusion your limiting factor is by using really thick layers or wide walls. At 0.2 mm layer height and 0.4 mm line width, even a sustained 150 mm/s is only 12 mm³/s volumetric extrusion rate which is high but reportedly within the capabilities of the stock Ender 3 extruder and hotend (but probably requires cranking up the temperature).