Nope. I was wrong. It might not be just the Stock Browser. Anything else that uses the stock browser seems to trigger reloads of what ever is the next app you run.
To test this, I just installed firebox from the market, (whole different engine) then I cleared all caching with es file Explorer and started over, and i can very occasionally see apps reloading as i switch from app to app.
Not nearly as often. Most of the time i can switch between 4 or 5 different apps with no reloading.
This Proves its still multitasking, and multitasking is NOT broken.
My latest theory is that if you use NOTHING that uses the stock browser, you can switch between many many apps.
The tricky bit is knowing what apps use the stock browser core. The play store uses the stock browser for instance, and so does
anything that is essentially a screen scrape of a web site.
If I use only firefox, and an office suite, and ES File Explorer, Wifi Analyser, GPS Status, (essentially anything that doesn't use any web data)
I can multitask all I want without a reload in any of the apps.
My current theory is that the stock browser is poisoning the cache of any other running app (not just those that
are using the webkit core), or somehow setting a flag for all other apps that they must restart.
Avoid Webkit, it works as you expect. Switching to any other app leaves you exactly at the same place with no
reload.
Eventually, if you use enough large apps, ICS will be forced to page something out, and you will see a refresh when
you switch back to it.
Multitasking is not broken. Memory management is a little suspect.