Hierarchical types and page size problem in heavy sites

Question

Situation:
WP 3.3.1
Hierarchical custom post type
7000 posts
Admin area

Problem:
Pages load time > 30s

Reason:
Page size > 1MB due to parent dropbox size in 'Quick Edit' when listing posts (appears twice) and 'Attributes' widget when editing post (just once)

Are hierarchical types unusable for large sites? Any workaround to solve this?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Try turning down the posts per page in screen options. The posts per page actually sets the number of PARENT posts to get, so it will get those posts and their ENTIRE tree. If you turn this down, say to around 5, you should significantly cut the size of the page, since it will decrease the instances of the parent dropdown.