It seems like MtGox's api disconnects people at every odd hour, most likely to save bandwidth by closing connections to people who would otherwise just keep the api running 24/7 even while not at the computer.

I wouldn't say it is suspicious on MtGox's part, it is just common knowledge that this happens, thus people take advantage of the opportunity. If anything this issue highlights the inherent problems that come about when everybody relies on a single entity to do all their trading, especially in the case of Bitcoin which is supposed to be decentralized.