I want to make sure I understand what you're saying. You're saying if Eligius used the other system, this problem would eventually surface. But the system it's on now does not have this problem?
M
Correct. The current system will have eternally shelved shares (most likely) since the expected luck is 98-99% due to orphans. Luck can pay off some shelved shares, but it's extremely unlikely it will ever pay them all. The problem with paying oldest first is that it penalizes newer miners, which discourages pool growth, and instead of having very old shares that will never get paid, its the newest shelved shares that will never get paid.