The way the buffering system works is that we take the first command from you, then we don't even read the next command pending (if any) until your character can execute it. So there's currently no way for the mud to know how much you've filled your command buffer, or even if you have a command waiting. Your "buffer" is all on your end, which is why dropping link can clear it so conveniently.

Reading in 10 or 20 commands at a time to create a buffer on the mud's end would be really irritating for spam walkers, and it would definitely increase considerably the amount of memory and processing command buffering takes.

I think the problem some folks are encountering when their whole ISP goes out on them is that the ISP isn't making a clean break for us. In other words, you haven't appeared to drop link until you actually try to reconnect. That could be a few minutes later, during which you were just sitting idle but not actually disconnected.