OK. I shut down all other programs except LR and the port to PE9 and back was much more tolerable. There's also a setting in the preferences about memory usage which may help it. Not sure I'll use it a lot, but as has been stated, the price was right.
Same image exported from LR after the trip thru PE9 and PSE
Having used Perfect FX 8 (free) and now 9 (free)... there are a couple of nice goodies in 9, but I much preferred 8 overall. Too late to go back now, but either way, it's a nice addition to one's editing suite.