SQL Server 2017 Express faster than Standard Edition
Wait statistics

In the execution plan of the query that performs worse we find the following wait stats:

  &lt;Wait WaitType="ASYNC_NETWORK_IO" WaitTimeMs="280" WaitCount="27" /&gt;
        &lt;/WaitStats&gt;
        &lt;QueryTimeStats CpuTime="14" ElapsedTime="295" /&gt;


For the 295ms that the query executed, 280ms was waiting on ASYNC_NETWORK_IO.

As a result, 14ms cpu time &amp; 15ms elapsed time without these wait stats seem reasonable to me.

These details in the actual execution plan mean that the issue is not directly related to the performance of the instance itself, but to the processing of these rows.



ASYNC_NETWORK_IO

Some parts of a previous answer on why ASYNC_NETWORK_IO occurs by Tom V

Which refers to a post by Thomas LaRock


  The ASYNC_NETWORK_IO wait indicates that one of two scenarios are
  happening. The first scenario is that the session (i.e., SPID) is
  waiting for the client application to process the result set and send
  a signal back to SQL Server that it is ready to process more data. The
  second is that there may be a network performance issue.


Most of the time I see ASYNC_NETWORK_IO happening it is due to the application not processing the rows fast enough (application design / app server under heavy load / stress). 

After validating the application, the network would be the next suspect.