What several of us are reporting (I think) is that the BTC client has become very weak when it has to catch up. It is well-behaved once it is in sync, but it has become tempting to leave any BTC wallet "hot" or to stop using it altogether. Ouch!
I compare it to downloading a torrent movie, everyone wants to leech and no one wants to seed, no incentive and if the client is using too many resources this will mean less peers for full clients, only SPV wallets will remain.