Well after still having problems with excessive pad wear I'm now contemplating changing disc rotors.
See my previous post for details on the pad wear problems http://nobmob.com/node/8818

A 10km ride this week on a wet track has worn through 50% of my sintered metal pads. And I certainly wasn't dragging the brakes or using them a great deal. By the end of the ride the pads had worn so much that the brake lever was squeezing all the way to the bars before the pads were engaging.