Might there be a config file tweak to adjust this? I know it is tied to the whole desktop effects animation speed (system settings/desktop effects/general/animation speed)) but I want to set the panel auto hide independently from that.

My 4.9 setup is so sweet and snappy with all the eye candy including transparent oxygen and blur. This is by far the smoothest slickest most beautiful windowing environment I've had in 20+ years. One of the things I enjoy is the animation speed being slow and smooth. When I set it to slow on my system, windows and menus have a smooth and fluid animation. The only problem is the auto hide panel is much slower than say a minimizing window or a menu pulldown yet it's speed is tied to the same speed setting.

I want to be able to speed up the panel but leave everything else the same. I have not found any GUI adjustments and am hoping that maybe there is a config file setting to do that. Any ideas?

Unfortunately i'm not sure who governs the auto-hide speed of the panel - based on the code i've seen it appears that it may be KWin that controls the animation.