Originally Posted by Nepherim

So we have identified:
1] The lag was due to process(es) on your device, not the device per-se.
2] You don't like the navigation or UI on some apps. Okay, that's your prerogative.
3] You have a problem with the was Android manages background processes. I have no comment to add to this.

Back to troubleshooting. I'd simply disable Google syncing before the reset. (When I did a hard reset, I had Google sync off. Post-reboot it was still off, and no programs were auto-restored.) If you re-link your Google account to the Droid, with auto-sync off, the market Place will recognize which apps you have already paid for.

Then manually re-install programs, testing the thumbnails periodically to determine which one/set of programs causes problems.