The option to set the number of connections has been removed in version 2.9. It has nothing to do with the difference between the Mac OS X and Mac OS 9 clients.
The developers feel that the network will eventually perform better for everyone if fewer farther-reaching queries are transmitted, as opposed to more short-reaching queries. Unfortunately, this requires a period of transition.
If it really bothers you, download 2.8.6 for Mac OS X and run that in the interim. Old versions of LimeWire are archived at
http://www9.limewire.com:82/download/ .
Mark
@version@/10.2.4