Something I've noticed
I've stayed with compact mode/small text, even after going to higher-rez display. One thing I think I've noticed, as it flashes by on the status line - the site is loading the objects for full graphic 'standard' mode, even when it's not going to display them?
I may be misinterpreting, but wouldn't compact mode load faster if it "knew" not to also load the full page? That is, if it read the user's setting earlier in the sequence and branched into a separate list for loading, depending on the result?