The Closer You Are to Servers, the Better Your Internet Speed
Server proximity is a factor in internet speeds, but it’s only one factor, and it may be a very minor one. The problem is that “distance” is very different for the Internet than it is in the physical world. The last mile of internet infrastructure before your house could be very poor, and you’ll have internet speed problems even if you are right by a server.
Congestion is also important. You can have great server proximity, but if congestion is bad somewhere along your connection then you will still get data traffic jams and experience slowdowns and poor ping performance.