I realize that the item clumping in general helps with lag, but does that apply to hoppers (and droppers, dispensers and hopperminecarts) as well? The items arent entities in these situations are they?

The fact that hoppers (etc.) work in increments of 3 items messes up so many redstone builds… is there any chance it could be turned off for those ones?

Hey Noah! Apologies for the delay, just seen this here.

Reducing the amount of ticks that hoppers do greatly helps with performance. By reducing the amount of ticks, but increasing the amount of items that are passed each tick, it should not affect the speed of hoppers. However I see how it can mess up some redstone builds. Some players need to be a little more creative to work around this, although it should still be reasonable to make work.