<blockquote> Is the PL/SQL call for the name information really that burdensome in > practice?
</blockquote>
Yes it is.
<blockquote> Is it certain that this isn't just a result of poor query or page design? > Shouldn't we be paginating output rather than listing thousands
of objects on a page?
</blockquote>
Well thousands of objects are deffinitelly too much to show on one
page. However, if you have, say, fifty objects you are already in the
area where scrolling offers better usability than paginating. Fifty
queries on one page is a very bad idea.
