You pushing towards AVRfreaks there?
Serious though, digitalRead() takes 5x the cycles of using port read but the mode must be set first.
You read a PINx register and mask out the bit(s) you want.
You write to PORTx, but never change already used pins.
If you write to PINx, the 1 bit(s) you write will toggle the PORTx bit(s) in the same position, change a pin without reading it first in a single cycle! Is it worth the learning curve?