IPhoto 6 unusably slow (starting with keywords and then the rest o product)

Question

As I've mentioned in a post in another thread, I upgraded to iPhoto 6 a few weeks ago. From the moment of upgrade, anything associated with the keyword function (applying, searching, even scrolling the keyword box) is painfully slow--60 seconds to 3+ minutes at a time (that's the average--I've had waits of 90 seconds to apply 1 keyword to 1 photo and 8 minutes to apply 1 keyword to 27 photos). Since that last post, I've also discovered that the longer I try to use the product, the slower EVERYTHING in the product gets (other than scrolling the library).
I use iPhoto as a database, not an image editor. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, the types of things I'm trying to do include:
* apply one keyword to 30 photos
* click on one photo after having assigned a keyword to a different subset of photos
* scroll down one page in the keyword box
* select 4 photos
* scroll one page in the main iPhoto view of photos
* search by keyword
I've re-installed, re-built, and re-started. I can also say that the longer I try to use iPhoto 6 in one session, the worse the performance gets. Yesterday morning I had to keyword 150 photos from a party and forced myself to use iPhoto so they could be searched with another set of pictures already in iPhoto. It took me OVER 1 HOUR to assign an average of 6 keywords to each photo with selections averaging 10-15 photos at a time. I am not exaggerating--I timed it (63 minutes). For the record, no other applications were running: iPhoto was flying solo (I thought running alone might help performance, but it didn't. I'm no software programmer but I have a lot of experience with computers and whatever is tying iPhoto's resources into a knot seems to be between iPhoto and iPhoto or iPhoto and the OS.)
Also, the longer I used the product, the fewer "actions" it saw. So, for example, at the beginning I could click 3 keywords on the same keyword pane view and all 3 would apply to the selected photos (with a still dismal response, but at least I was getting 3 assignments for each response). By the end, only 1 assignment would be "seen" at a time even if 3 were clicked (and the other 2 would be translated into some random actions as iPhoto would scroll the keyword pane and assign a random keyword--not necessarily on the same side or the same position on the screen of the keywords I had actually clicked). The result? The functional response time tripled.
The product is not only much worse than iPhoto 5, it's unusably slow. Sadly, I've already upgraded. So I'm wondering if anyone can tell me:
1) Is there any way to know officially if Apple is addressing this specific problem? I know other people are experiencing this and thought there would be a fix from Apple by now, but nothing.
2) Is there any way to bail out of iPhoto 6 and go back to iPhoto 5? I know there's no official path, but (A) is there any unofficial path and (B) what would I lose?
3) Since iPhoto 6 is the only iLife product I use, I feel especially ripped-off. What I'd really like to do is get a refund and pursue a different solution. Any thoughts there?
G4   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  
G4   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

Answer 1

Old Toad
Since I last wrote I have:
* Rebuilt the directories with Disk Warrior. The problems I had were 30+ overlaps between iPhoto images and iTunes song files.
This got rid of the 8 minute responses, but performance was still unusably appalling.
* I cleaned out the user caches with OnyX.
No change in iPhoto performance.
* I reinstalled iPhoto. (Because of the overlaps I also tried to reinstall iTunes but it doesn't have an obvious path for that. Given the number of hours I've already burned on this Apple problem I didn't have the fight in me for another one).
No change.
* Per another post in this forum I emptied iPhoto trash, then per Old Toad I rebuilt the iPhoto library with the first 3 options.
Noticeable improvement, but the performance is still dreadful.
* Did a re-install and archive of OS X (per a friend's suggestion) and downloaded all the system updates anew.
No improvement.
So after rebuilding my system from the directories up, re-installing iPhoto, and rebuilding the iPhoto library I'm "back to" 30 second to 3+ minute waits for everything when the Photo Info pane is active. For example, it takes 30-90 second waits for tasks such as:
* changing a tab in the Photo Info pane
* trying to scroll the Keywords tab of the Photo Info pane
* assign 1 keyword to 1 photo
It takes 2-3+ minute waits for tasks such as:
* scrolling the main window (one click in the scroll bar--not dragging) when the Photo Info pane is open
* assigning 1 keyword to 36 photos
* closing the Photo Info pane (AFTER however many minutes it took for the final commit i did before trying to exit)
My observations:
* When the ball is spinning on the screen, iPhoto doesn't "remember" what I do as other applications do, although the Keywords pane will occasionally scroll backward or forward--apparently randomly--in response to a single click anywhere in iPhoto. (And I'm not one of those people who bangs on the keyboard constantly when the computer is busy: I'm talking about a click that might get in before the ball starts spinning on the screen.)
* The first "click" after opening the Photo Info Pane (either the Keywords tab or the first keyword box) is always "free"--no problem with excessively long waits. The second click after after a "free" click always has the burdensome wait times. Occasionally, though, in the first 3-5 clicks in the Photo Info pane the first click after what I'm assuming is a commit does not have the painful wait times. After those first 3-5 clicks, though, every click gets this excessive wait.
* It seems odd to me how consistent the minimum wait is: right around 30 seconds. The click is either "free"--i.e. no perceptible wait time (or a reasonably minimal wait, given the task at hand)--or it's 30+ seconds.
These response times really do make the product unusable for me. Does anyone:
1) Have any other suggestions?
2) Know how I can find out whether this problem is being pursued by Apple?
3) Know of any path out of the product so I can put myself out of my misery?………
G4   Mac OS X (10.4.6)