This might not matter if you don’t care about R7. But it’s still my default for opening GH files so I “discovered” the dependency on the R8 Rhino file - and “fixed it” by internalizing the surface.
Then was reminded that GH (R7 and R8) always bypass the Data Dam when opening the GH file. 
I remembered a post I read recently by @AndersDeleuran that has a Python solution to that problem so tried it.
perforated surface_2025Jun21bb.gh (24.6 KB)
The way this works is that the Data Dam is disabled when you first open the GH file, allowing changes to the ‘UV Count’ sliders without triggering the SLOW SrfSplit component. The circles are visible though. When you want to cut holes the first time, you must click ‘Enable’ in the group at the top. Nothing happens! After ~24 seconds, SrfSplit completes and a short while later, the holes appear. The delays are not ideal, of course.
After that, Data Dam is enabled, the ‘UV Count’ sliders can be used and when ready to cut holes again, the button on Data Dam is clicked. Tested in R8. 