Yes, it definitely helps with launcher redraws. But on the OG, and I'm not sure where, there was a point where too much caused instability. So try 32, and if it's stable but you have issues with you're launcher (lag or redraw), then bump 4 at a time until you get the best results. Some people cranked it up to 60megs without issue, I think.
The other tweaks are locking home in memory by adding a line to the build.prop file and setting to 0 (most roms and some launchers set it to 1, but at 0 it will not be killed). That's the big one.
We talked about changing the VM Heap size. That's also a big one.
The other one, and last to play with, is the JPEG cap. I never really saw much of an impact from that, but again with a lot of widgets or other customizations it takes up graphics memory. So the JPEG cap would, I think, be increasing that memory buffer for graphics.
I've fooled with all these tweaks and my D1 runs great now (just a media device, no VZW service). Also running Pete's latest 2.7 rom. Big thing was I got rid of a lot of apps (have only 48 now) and just running 3 screens and about 10 widgets. It runs smooth as butter. I'm also using a light launcher - Tag Home.
Finally, you have to take a good look at the apps you want. Ultimately the D1 is limited for ram - and Pete's is the best I've seen but it only leaves you with 80-90megs free. If you run Swype, it takes up a huge amount of ram, and always wants to re-start itself (which is going to cause something else to be close when you are on the margin). Phandroid is an app that is poorly designed and wants to keep running itself (and for some reason has a fairly high priority). Just a few examples. Apps that have associated background services that you can turn-off will ultimately cause other apps/services to be killed that you might not want.
