The CPU is overloaded because VLC reads the media tags for every file in the playlist...
For linux theres a package name "cpulimit", that allowed me (limitiing VLC to 10% CPU usage) to cool down my laptop' CPU to ~65°C instead of 95°C - while loading a huge m3u playlist
Yeah thats cool, you can brew some coffee with an moka pot on your CPU while the list is loading, if the BIOS doesnt shutdown the computer automatically before the coffe begins to pour..
But it would be so much user and CPU friendlier to add an option in the preferences and to the command line parameters to ask VLC for loading the media tags only for the tracks currently playing or visible, or to set a delay in ms between each file, or anything you can imagine to avoid this... (Too bad for the coffee..)
THANKS