>Firstly,it took an extremely long time to return a large list from the server.
> We had several customer requests to reduce this time.

True, but on a large server, you'd expect it to take a
considerable time.

> Secondly, a decision was made that such a large list (500+) was not useful.
> Again, this decision was based on customer input.

Returning incomplete information is even less useful. I have well
over 600 clients at one installation. Returning the first 500
doesn't do me any good if I want to manage the last 100.

> If this compromise is too restrictive, I would be happy to pass on your
> comments to the development group.

I'd say it's seriously broken. If you must limit the size of the
transfer, at least give us a button to say "I Want It All" and
that we're willing to wait, similar to the wait for offline media
dialog. That'd probably be a good compromise -- queries that are
likely to take an extended period -- say over 300 lines of output
or so -- could trigger a "this is a big query, do you want to
wait?" box. Of course, you'll need a setting to be able to say
"yes, always wait"...