I discovered the same "problem" having upgraded Limewire to 2.9.7.
OK, saving on line-traffic sounds reasonable, but the same "Could not download, Awaiting Resources" msg occurs when connections have a "hick-up" and that should be avoided.
I can live with not having an automatic requery when a file cannot be found, but having to start downloading again from the searchwindow to reactivate a download-proces that has started but stopped somewhere (for whatever reason) is pretty akward.

Or are we being pushed to buy the PRO version ???????