The bad news is that it doesn't work for me. When I set the "thread pagination" at 250, the number of titles that show up is also 250 (even though I set the number of titles to be 50, or 20). When I change the thread pagination to 50, the number of titles dutifully follows.
It might be a browser thing -- I use lynx.
A clarification . . . the number of titles shown in a listing of titles, varies. The number of titles shown does NOT follow the "thread pagination" setting when the site is being viewed as "Latest Posts (Subjects)."
But, the number of titles shown DOES follow the "thread pagination" setting when the site is being viewed as "Latest Messages."
I prefer to view FR in "Latest Messages" mode, because it is common that older topics will be renewed by a "bump." I would like the site layout better if the number of titles listed in "Latest Messages" mode did not follow the "thread pagination" setting. To me, the "thread pagination" setting should be effective only when building a page that views a single thread, not when building a page that lists numerous thread titles.