I would like to point out that booting AFK players may not actually resolve anything.

We don't know WHAT specifically is triggering the 1017 errors and queues.

The simple fact is that they may be monitoring performance counters or something along that line, then denying logon after thresholds are met. This would potentially explain why certain zones are going down, or getting booted during zone transfers.

Logged in players that are idling aren't taking up very many resources on the server.

Just something to think about...