OK so I found out this problem isn't isolated to PLAY and VEP (server) loading everything twice. I noticed recently that this happens with Kontakt 4 too! With Kontakt it just isn't as noticeable if you use "background loading" as it will just read the programs twice, so it doesn't take twice to load - just a little bit more time.
However this now seems to be a general problem with build 8008 on PC. It doesn't happen on my Mac. It happens in both Windows XP and Windows 7 with the 64-bit version, haven't tested the 32-bit version.
So this seems to be a VSL problem - not an EastWest one!