Bitcoin can certainly help people conduct cross-border transactions faster and cheaper than banking methods, but I think what Bitcoin offers is limited and it's not that scalable.. it does provide convenience and security, but it still has limitations that make it unsuitable for every use case.. especially when you say it's fast and free, it's like you're trying to gloss over the trade-offs that come with using Bitcoin. I think no technology is perfect, and Bitcoin is no exception.. while it has so many advantages, it still has limitations.
I think OP wasn't comparing it with other cryptocurrencies when he said it is faster for cross-border transactions, but he was comparing it with fiat transfers that we make through banking channels, and of course, it is way faster than that when you have to send money in another country, because with Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency, it doesn't matter whether the receiver is sitting next to you or is living across the world in a country that is at the other end of the earth, the transaction time will be the same, and that is beauty of it. When you want to send money through fiat to another country, there will be so much to handle.
It's obviously not free, and the fees could be high sometimes but not all the time, but again, if you compare it with the fees, taxes, and everything you will need to pay when making a fiat cross-border transaction, what you pay as Bitcoin's network fee is nothing compared to that. If I'm paying, let's say, $100 or maybe more for making a transaction to another country, I would think I wasn't charged anything if I can make the same transaction by only paying $2 or even $5, which is still high during normal times when the network isn't congested.