The last few updates have made some things speedier, e.g. opening Sonar itself for example. But I've found that loading projects takes a lot longer. Or is it just me seeing this?

I haven't really noticed the "speedy" (as Cakewalk says) Kingston version being any faster than others.  I have a relatively fast PC and an SSD, if I were on an older PC and/or conventional hard drive it may be different.
 

Skyline_UK
The last few updates have made some things speedier, e.g. opening Sonar itself for example. But I've found that loading projects takes a lot longer. Or is it just me seeing this?

 
You may be right.  I thought I noticed the same thing but it is hard to test this now without rolling back. I might create a test project and keep track of start-up times from now on.  It is something that is important for my particular workflow.
 
On a positive note, Sonar Pt-K seems to be working well on my system.  (However my lava lamp packed it in 30 years ago )
Cheers.
 

I've not noticed any change in project load times. However, even if there are, the next update apparently significantly speeds project load up, and that'll be coming any day now. So maybe your problem will just disappear.