Steven Zahm@ Linda
First, Connections would not have any meaningful impact of the sites loading performance outside of the directory page. User manage directories literally in the hundreds of thousands quite successfully.
As for a CSV export, the best way to migrate the data from one site to another is o use phpMyAdmin and export the {prefix_}connections table from the source and import them into the destination using phpMyAdmin. You would also have to copy the `../wp-content/uploads/connections-images/ from the source site to the destination site.
To answer your question specifically… sorry though is not CSV export from within the admin. This is planned to be included this summer sometime but it’ll have limitations that really would not make it a suitable method for migrating data site to site. his would not be an artificial limitation… The Connections db tables are relational which is not something that can be replicated in a flat CSV file.
Hope that answers your question thoroughly.