Wow, old thread. But still relevant!
I remember so many live letters in the past where I'd listen and hope for news about CWLS membership increases, but it was like they forgot about it. Now we're at a point where cross-dc travel happens, so there're calls for a cross-dc linkshell even, but god knows that would be even worse somehow.
The situation sucks, I feel you. I don't even bother making new CWLSes because the limit is just so limiting and the basic functionality is lacking. Even if you wanted to purge inactives, there's no function in the CWLS menu that tells you when the person last logged in or anything.