@Wayne
Fair point, of course. I wasn't entirely serious; you have explained this issue in the past several times. That said, I'm on 56K here at home and never really noticed a problem in the past when the limit was higher.
I suppose it also comes down to the maximum number of posts displayed per page too (which logically determines the maximum number of avatar images)
@blobrana
Ultimately it's file length that is the issue. However, by downsizing the maximum area of the avatars so the average file size should go down as well.