does charging lipo's at low amp decrease punch?

[lincpimp]

As for the initial question, I do not think a slow charge will do anything for performance. As long as the pack is in balance and all of the cells are matched well you should be fine. If your pack goes out of balance (as the cheaper packs will) a slower charge can give the balancer more time to do its job during the charge. This depends if you have a charger with a built in balancer or use a stand alone charge thru balancer. Or you may have a non charge thru balancer (like a blinky).

All said and done I do not think a slow charge will benefit the lipo at all.