I actually don't mind the extra hashrate when needed...even if it does cost us a few coins... we are small and can use the help... but would be nice if you could stick around a little longer... havent seen any hoppers around on a 5M block...
I dont really believe its just after a new block, your server seems to simply not handle alot of traffic.
Right now I cant even with just default miner hold a steady connection for more than 2minutes before it times out and retries. Ive tested this from a server in uk and us.
So i hope this is a known issue and gets resolved as you mentioned about some update to the system coming.