So been doing some thinking and I keep coming back to a feature in Windows 10 mail that does not apparently exist in mail for OS X. That is the feature during setup of an account to sync only the last week or month or 3 months of mail as opposed to syncing EVERYTHING. Windows can do it no problem however Mac is lagging behind. Officially the solution is to alter gmail's IMAP settings but personally I think that it's a stupid way to do it as that limits ALL IMAP clients connected to that account not just mail on OS X. I already submitted feedback but I'd encourage anyone else who wants this feature to do so as well.