Bruce,
> If this is a generally desired feature (and I question that), I think we
> need a more general solution.
I'd argue that it is generally desired (or some convenient workaround)
but not urgently so. I'd also argue that if we're going to have a
--no-stats flag, it should exist for the other client ultilites as well;
if I don't want pg_dump showing up, I probably don't want Vacuum showing
up, or various other already-debugged maintenance routines.
I'd suggest putting this into the first patch review for 8.5.
--Josh