> latency after connection, presumably to load table definitions and other data for display

You are correct. Particularly to have auto-completion on table names in the SQL editor, highlighting primary key columns, etc.

(1) I understand that psql can be quicker in experienced hands. For me, particularly having to type out chinese characters for table names (I am not a native speaker of the language) is really difficult. pgXplorer eases some of that pain by auto-completing. So, in this specific case of mine, it is a bit quicker.

> Another thing which I would find enticing would be special attention to displaying query plans.

I presume you know about http://explain.depesz.com/? Very useful and open source too. I will be trying to add something similar in pgXplorer as well.

Thanks a lot for the helpful offer. I will certainly connect by email to discuss some related things to the project.

Edits: (1)