As one who runs several small vBulletin boards (all of which incorporate vBSEO, as does FT), I will say that most people probably can't begin to fathom the complexity of the system. I've reamed my ISP any number of times in the last year.

Doing it all on the scale that FT does boggles even my mind.

That's not to excuse performance issues, but there's surely a lot more behind the scenes than meets the eyes. Hungry people looking for jobs are NOT the ones you want for this. You need to pirate the really good ones that are still employed!