Opening a directory with multiple files invokes hang of SCP.

When I try to open a directory (on Linux machine) with many small files, SCP does not respond for a long time. It is not possible to stop the reading process or simply restart the program.
My is version. 5.21.5
Best regards,
Sergey.
sergio.churaev@gmail.com

So does it "hang" (forever) or does it "not respond for a long time" (temporarily)? If the latter, cannot you use SFTP? With SFTP protocol, the reading can be stopped using Esc key.