The Importance of playing fast

[GunnerUK]

I've been playing 5 years now and am self taught. By my own admission, I'm not that good.

My problem is a complete lack of speed. From singles to doubles to paradiddles, I can play them all in a fashion, but only up to a point.

Now when I see other drummers and youtube teachers play a paradiddle slowly, I think "I can do that". But then they say "now lets play it up to speed" and i'm like ... [deleted]... how can it be physically possible to play it THAT fast.

So, I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm always gonna be a snail pace, my question is, "how important is it to be able to play fast'?

It sure looks cool, but is it really neccessary?