I have 2 x OCZ Vertex 3 drives (over 1000MB/s read speed!) and it's still as slow as hell (10 minutes to load 2GB of samples!). It's definitely a bug.
2. Yes I know that, it's what I'm doing now. It's ok as a workaround but it's not very convenient when you have a lot of different projects with all different sounds needed. Much better if EW or VSL can fix it.
Certainly though, I suspect it's more EW's problem since, well, I've certainly had more technical problems coming from that direction than VSL's, not wanting to be impolite to East West, who I'm sure work very hard, and don't see VE compatibility high on their priority list unfortunately.