I ended up having to do a complete hard reset again. My N86 wouldnt allow me to delete the current Gmail account. Every time I tried, it would hang at "deleting email account" (I let it sit for about an hour) So, I just did a hard reset and started over.
The N86 and E72 must have different versions of the email wizard. I remember when I had my E72 that I could decline the Nokia Messaging agreement and set things up manually. It doesnt work that way on the N86. I found some reference to setting up Mail for Exchange on the N86 by either taking out the sim or putting it in offline mode. I was able to set up MFE and my gmail account in offline mode. Everything is back to normal. But still seems somewhat slow.
For what its worth, I have 10 emails in my Gmail inbox. I use the email widget on the homescreen of the N86. When I click on the widget to go to the inbox, it takes 4-5 seconds before my inbox is fully opened and I'm able to select an email to view. I think part of the reason is I'm using fetch email, instead of always connected. Those users that are having smoother email experiences aren't waiting for their phones to connect to the server.
As a side note. I didnt install Taskman this time. I'm not sure, but it may have been slowing down my N86 for some reason. I know it would hang occassionally on a reboot, while Taskman loaded. Hopefully thats not true, Taskman is a great little app.