Here is another aspect that WP 3 and the various Ping Optimizer plugins may or may not address concerning the issue at hand.
Yes I know I should write in draft mode "then" hit publish and no matter how many times I refrain when I finally do I still come back and edit. Ok now that aside here is the issue I would like everyone to consider!
QUESTION: Most of us use feedburner! I have their "Ping Shot" service activated. Correct me if I am wrong but even if I use one of these Ping Optimizer Plugins (Maxblog's, Cb Net or Ultimate Plugins Smart Update Pinger) and they shut off my Dashboard's settings/write ping setting, none the less over at the feed burner site isn't my rss feed still being updated AND if I have the feedburner's "Ping Shot" addon service checked then I will still be "Ping Spamming" when I re-edit (update) my published posts!
Thus (correct me if I am not understanding the ping process) even if I were to literally remove every ping service in my dashboard's settings/write interface and only paste that list back or one item back say once per week - I would STILL be Ping Spamming since over at FeedBurner's website their "Ping Shot" service would be set off each time I edit my post (update)!