IMO if there&#x27;s enough busywaiting that it shows up on the CPU load, then there&#x27;s so much busywaiting that <i>that</i> is a problem, because a CPU that&#x27;s busy with such chores is not available for real work. The CPU load is not (as you say) very lucid, a bit like the question mark in the &quot;unix car&quot; joke, but in that particular case it&#x27;s caused by a real problem: Too much busywaiting.