I've seen the future and it isn't Cubase

What do you mean without latency? That’s not possible. There is always some latency.

what plugins are you running aside from the VSTis? if you have insert mix plugins anywhere in the project that have a high base latency, the entire project is going to compensate for that.

All you have to do, is hit the ‘Constrain Delay Compensation’ button which will deactivate these plugins. If you are losing sonic inspiration by losing the sound of the mix - then print a stereo mixdown to listen to while ‘Constrain Delay Compensation’ is activated, and or individually freeze the tracks that have latency.