Ironically, this far more expensive ink could be why you see slow print speeds and simultaneously a need for more open meshes. I've never pulled a single print with phthalate-laden ink but I'd wager those plasticizers made for easier printing ink. Why else would you manufacture it with such a nasty family of chemicals?
Probably also why it was cheaper to some degree. Manufacturers rarely have to pay the true cost of making their product. When you consider the actual cost to us as a group, a nation, an economy, whatever, of the health and environmental damage done those old school inks were the most expensive of all. But that's crazy anti-business talk, right? I must not want people to have jobs or something going around saying things like that.
I love open mesh counts. We use a wide range of tpi to print regular old prints going from 90/71 to 330/30. The really open ones take skill to print with correctly. Is it harder on the auto as well?