I’ve been learning Chinese recently, and I was having a ton of trouble memorizing new characters. Eventually I realized that part of the problem was that by the time a minute came around, I’d already forgotten the new word. And so I’d end up in a frustrating cycle of reviewing 10 or so new cards where I kept getting all of them wrong. But a 1s step helps me get a grasp on one word at a time and prevents me from going in circles.
I will say I’ve never had to do this kind of thing with other languages, just Chinese, but it’s honestly helped so much that I’ve started using it on my other decks too. One second might seem a bit extreme, and I actually tried 10/15 second steps first, but even that was too long. I know no one really wants to add more learning steps, but I’ve found that if you get the card right, a 1s learning step is basically nothing, and if you get it wrong, a 1s step can help save you time in the long run.
Anyway, if you’re having similar problems, I’d encourage you to try this—it’s made a huge difference!
I actually/currently use 1s 1m 20m, but since the default is 10m, I figured I’d use that in the title. I’m still experimenting with that part. 
Also, if you’re learning Chinese/Japanese, learn the radicals first—I’ve found that online resources (at least the ones I’ve used) don’t really emphasize these, but I would honestly compare not knowing them to not knowing a new language’s alphabet before trying to learn that language.