pawns are not the only problem, and possibly not the biggest. they are the only ones not contributing to the solution however. Having said that, if I was still a pawn I probably wouldn't join until the site performance increased.

Attrition of paying members is likely to be a problem for the future of the site I would imagine, so anything that improves performance and availability should be tried.

Here's another thought: turn off the auto refresh, or limit the lower number to 5 minutes. I suspect the number of people who leave the browser up while not actively playing is causing some unnecessary performance problems.