But why? Can't it just load to the "Open Seat" tab, and if you click on the 'Friends' it will then load the friends you may want to play with?

Also, what are the mechanics behind populating the friends? It seems to query the whole friends list each time I create a game, to pull out the top 30ish friends that I have the most games in common with.

Maybe, have a cache of friends that gets updated weekly, maybe more frequently for new people? Maybe a look back to the last 10 games to pull those people, then people that you play with frequently

First world problem, but it seems to take a good 10-15 seconds to populate this page at times.

Agree, I am experiencing similar loading times. I blame myself, for the ~5k ppl on the list and my unwilingness to purge inactive accounts. Still," Can't it just load to the "Open Seat" tab, and if you click on the 'Friends' it will then load the friends you may want to play with?" +1