Hmm. The code must be extremely bad if it can reach 1MB/s doing that.
I've actually given up on getting this client installation to perform any send transactions. With the new fixed wallet I again tried sending coins and just like last time they stayed at "0/unconfirmed". I even got to see "0/offline?" - this on a client with 8 peer connections and receiving updates to the block chain without issues.
(I don't consider the title to be misleading - if we ever want to get non-techies to feel comfortable using Bitcoin with the official client)