I think Load Applet (this also goes for cpumem) isn't listening for or respecting the "status bar not visible" messages. While it was installed and the status bar wasn't present, top was reporting hildon-status-menu at a constant .7% and Xorg over 3%. Uninstalled, hildon-status-menu is back down to 0% and Xorg hovers near .9% (probably because of top updates). If someone doesn't take a look at Load Applet and cpumem within the next week, I will.