FWIW: I've noticed the incredible number of IO reads too. No other program I use (e.g., Adobe Premiere, Lightroom, or Photoshop, or Cakewalk Sonar X1) takes nearly as long to launch as BIAB. As others have noted, relaunching BIAB results in a much faster time.

Seems BIAB loads a huge number of files it doesn't really need to minimally operate before displaying the chord window. I think old Windows operating system did something similar years ago. MS got around that by changing the series of events, such that the OP displayed the splash and login screens sooner, while the OP continued to load files. Maybe BIAB could do something similar? Seems like a simple programming solution, but I'm no programmer.

Bob