Network hashrate is still at ~11-11.5GH excluding the badluck, I dont think that Mystery miner is gone unless some other mysterious 1-1.5TH user replaced him.

You are looking at the 1 TX blocks, its pretty obvious that is gone but the hashrate isnt.

I'm working on a patch that solves block hashes analytically without requiring to brute-force SHA. Then, you simply set the blocktime variable to the desired value and off you go.
I'm in the testing phase right now, set it to 1 block per hour, just to make sure I won't destabilize the bitcoin enterprise, but I still need to add tx to the equation; people seem to get uncomfortable with all these zero tx blocks right now.
Well, once I fixed that I will offer the patch for just $9.95 to everybody!