@Cernel
For example, if I click on Civil War in Download Maps (where you auto-install the maps, not the website), it takes 4 seconds to show the 400 pixels wide pic of the map, for me.
It just seems strange to wait 4 seconds to see such a small image, as in a broswer an image like that would take close to no time to display (and I recally it took close to no time before 1.9 too, in the old thing to auto install maps).
So, I was thinking, if it has to be so slow (or maybe it's just me), maybe you want to use JPG for all such pics, while you are doing it.