Yeah, I'm inclined to believe all the software installed on the newer mac is somehow bogging things down. The older mac is basically stock with very few apps installed.

Looks like I will have to jump through security hoops to run strace/dtruss. While I"m curious, I'm not that curious to do all that and then only find out that I have no idea what I'm looking at and going down that rabbit hole. A project for a very rainy day, I suppose.