It still scans the paths, but it won't load new/updated plug-ins to get their names/IDs/etc. It shouldn't take long though, unless a lot of unnecessary directories are included, or if you just started up your system and the filesystem is slow and not yet in cache.
Ah, okay. That makes sense. I got the wrong impression because I turned off the splash screen (I measured a performance improvement on startup with the splash screen turned off, which is something you may be interested in knowing, by the way), so the only thing between me and REAPER is that little “Scanning VSTs” window.
VST plug-ins setting “Scan new/updated plug-ins on startup” has no effect
Linear Mode
