Just a quick comment to mention that with both Gnucleus and BearShare swarming is certainly available while doing multi-party direct connects..... Is it ever! If there are four connected, for example, and three of them have the file you wish than the transfer speeds are really amazing!
I do agree with you, though, that there does seem to be an overall negative attitude about 'private' direct connects. There is no justification for this negativity, but..... there it is anyway

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