Information in File Explorer status line?

It has always been like this. And for good reason. As is often the case things are more complex than they may seem.

The disk space consumed by a folder is not a property of the folder but must be calculated when requested. This means enumerating each file and the contents of each subfolder. A large folder might contain millions of files. This can consume considerable time and you can't know how much until the process is complete. And it gets worse if the folder is on a network drive. In addition to the time required it could consume considerable bandwidth. On a slow network link this could consume a large portion of the bandwidth for a relatively minor feature. And the value may not even mean what you think it does.

And then there is the issue that the number is at best only an approximation. Some of the issues:
1. Does the value mean the compressed or uncompressed size of NTFS compressed files?
2. Does the value include hard links, soft links, and junctions? If so, which ones?
3. Does the value include NTFS alternate data streams?
4. Much more.

There is no single right answer to these questions and the answers can make a big difference. These issues also apply to the value actually displayed but at least by the time the folder is displayed the value is easily calculated.

These issues may not be serious for a home user but they can be a big problem in a large corporate network. This is a big market for Microsoft.