> Is that really an issue? We're talking seconds here, performed every one in a blue moon.

sorry I'm only using IDE HDD not Raptor or high speed SATA
Moving thousands of files takes a few more seconds
Opening a folder with thousand of images takes even longer. And if you do back up them and if you are loading them in CD-ROM or DVD you will notice how long it takes to open a folder of thousands of files.
Yes it's computer era and seconds do mean a lot of time. I want every thing in my PC be done in the shortest effective time

Torrenting is also a problem, thousand of files create a much bigger torrent file which would be a bandwidth problem for some torrenting sites.
If you use irc or some other p2p, leeching picture by picture would drive you and the fserve crazy.