Do disconnected z-wave devices slow the hub down?

I am very convinced that such "phantom" devices adversely affect the performance of your zwave mesh.
Unfortunately, the only way that I know of to remove such deices (at the present time, in HE) is to use the PC Controller program, along with a secondary zwave controller, as described in this discussion:
How to get rid of Phantom (Ghost, Non Operating) Zwave Nodes