V6: Free Tagging Feature

Free Tagging has proved to be very useful. However, I find it can be a bit slow on a shared sever. I don’t know what others are seeing, but it takes awhile to call up existing terms, as you type. On a new site, Free Tagging saves a lot of time, bouncing back and forth to categories menu, but as a site matures and Terms begin to be determined already, the need for Free Tagging becomes less. Which bring me to this suggestion, request … discussion?

Would it be possible to rework this feature?

1) Set it up in a manner much like the way the editor works. Enable Rich Text, Disable Rich text… toggle.
2) Enable Free Tagging, Disable Free Tagging. (admin,settings)
3) Use of such would be determined very much like a 3rd party editor.
a. Enable as default or disable as default
b. Allow users to choose – Yes, No
c. Role Permissions setting through Access Control

Thank you for considering,
jw