I'm going to give another week and come back to this - but I've been looking at the trackers, and I increasingly think that my election hypothesis (a pause on some decisions roughly after test and before oath from start of election to its completion) has some truth in it.
From the trackers, it really does look like very little progress (for the roughly August24-March25 period I looked at) during the election. Stark empty LPP columns noticeable after ~March 15, esp). Some exceptions, to be sure - but not very many (which I might be able to figure out based on timing of various aspects, but a bit lazy).
And now we're starting to see the LPPs and oath invitations starting up. Not an obvious trend just yet, but it's only a few days after the election. If that hypothesis is correct, it'll be much more obvious in two-three weeks.