As a "seasoned" Ameristar poker tournament player my experience is exactly as yours. By the time we color up and race off the red chips, there is plenty of opportunity to take some red off the table.

Ross said:
TON of red chips on the table that are not used. Mostly they are pushed into the pot by players who dont want to deal with them.

I've noticed that myself. Sometimes it appears to me that this is a "tell" when a player tries to "dump" his red chips into the pot just to get rid of them and is not expecting them to come back!