I think attitudes are changing about this. I've read multiple blog posts from agents that say you should always multiple submit when searching for an agent for precisely the reasons you cite - the wheels of publishing move excruciatingly slowly. That you should only grant an exclusive to an agent if they specifically ask you for one, but before agreeing you should negotiate a term for that exclusive - eg, two weeks, one month. After that it's understood that you'll be submitting elsewhere.
I'll be starting an agent search soon (though I'm not exactly holding my breath!) and plan to multiple submit. I'd be foolish to do otherwise.
You must keep in mind that if you multiple submit, the polite thing to do is to formally remove your work from consideration from other publishers/agents if you sell it. Nothing pisses an agent or editor off more (which can potentially affect future sales) than wasting their time on a submission that has already sold elsewhere.
ETA: I found a blog post from former agent Nathan Bransford that discusses this very thing
here. Of particular note:
Quote:
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Agents expect that you're querying simultaneously and widely, and frankly, if they don't, they should. If you're querying agents one-by-one I hope you plan to live as long as Methuselah because that's how long you're going to be querying. Remember to target your agent search, personalize your queries, and don't query the entire agent world all at once, but also don't needlessly slow down your search by waiting on exclusive queries.
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