What does an upgrade really do?

So far, all my nominations took about 3-5 days to get in voting, and then somewhere between 1 and 2 weeks to go through.

My last nomination is one I am pretty certain of (unless, of course, the rules got different interpretations again), I upgraded right away, hoping it would go in voting and through the process faster.

There nomination is a family run restaurant that used to be a ‘foodtruck’ for over 15 years, that is very well known and loved in the entire region, and a few years ago he was able to build a complete restaurant, which is extremely popular.
I tried to upload a video of the opening in my nomination, but did not get that to work. Now I am wondering if the entire nomination went astray ?

It has been in cue now for way over a week, so it seems it only slowed it down? I can understand maybe voting might take a bit longer, but does upgrading not effect the waiting time until voting starts?

If it only slows it down, is there a way to remove the upgrade?