Why is it so slow to read an exr texture inside a point vop? Am I doing something wrong? If I convert them to jpg, they read super fast. Sure, jpg are much lighter then exr, but still, the speed difference is ridiculous. And if I put the same exr in a UV quick shade, it also reads super fast. Why is it that inside a point vop context it gets so slow?

EXR files are very slow to work with. I suggest using a supported texture format such as the houdini RAT format.