not 10x queries --- one additional query per 5000+ requests, for an extremely edge case scenario you have given.
I believe what Brad is talking about is that when you use pageids (or titles), you are usually limited to 50 of them per query. But if you use generator, the limit is usually 500. Which means your approach would lead to 10× as many queries.
Petr Onderka [[en:User:Svick]]