if the pool switched to PPLNS, would that mean that it would pay out rewards as they are earned? in other words, there would be no delay?
The minimum balance functionality (you don't get paid until your balance is > 200 TBC) would still cause payout delays. For example, if when a block is found suddenly a lot of old accounts are now above the balance, you can have more than 50 BTC due for payment. But it will typically be a shorter delay than is seen after long blocks with SMPPS. With SMPPS, we occasionally see delays of as much as 7-8 blocks. I shouldn't get that bad with PPLNS.
I don't understand how this can happen with PPLNS. Since no block is ever paid out more than 50 BTC, every old account with a pending balance technically already has the required BTC in the pool fund, it's just not paid out yet. The pool should never owe more than it has on hand.