The reason load average typically included processes stuck in IOwait is because there are several systems that decide whether or not to start more processes dep

The reason load average typically included processes stuck in IOwait is because there are several systems that decide whether or not to start more processes depending on what the load average is. One of these is make, and you will also get people manually looking at load average to work out whether a machine can handle some more work. When a machine runs out of RAM and starts thrashing, it most definitely does not want to have more stuff run on it. You want the load average to be high in this case to discourage people or programs from starting more stuff. Luckily, when a system starts thrashing, it typically has lots of processes in IOwait, so load average goes through the roof.