I've recreated the monster AI in Construct and run a side-by-side comparison between both the MMF2 HWA version and the Construct version.
For the test, I deleted all events except for the ones that handle monster behavior (i.e. attaching monsters to their collision masks, wandering around, etc), and I continuously spawned new monsters until the frame rate dropped from 60 to 30. In order to handle the relationship between monsters and their collision masks, I used an optimization trick in MMF2 discovered by a member of the Sonic Fangames HQ, which you can read about here:
http://sonicfangameshq.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7187
To date, it's the fastest method of MMF2 object handling I've encountered. In Construct, I used the built-in Pairer object to group monsters with masks.
Despite the optimized object handling trick in MMF2, I only managed to spawn 95 monsters until the frame rate fell to 30. In Construct, it didn't drop to 30 until 376 monsters had spawned. When both programs reached 30 FPS, MMF2's display was much choppier than Construct's, which I believe has something to do with Construct using DirectX 9 as its runtime.
So, as I predicted, Construct has much better object handling than MMF2. In spite of this, I still have a few concerns. Microsoft is apparently working on its next operating system, Windows 8, and there's no telling if games built with Construct Classic will be compatible with this new system. Conversely, MMF2 can export to a number of different formats, and it's updated more actively, so there's a chance that Clickteam could find a better method of object handling by the time the game is finished.
So, I'll have to decide if I should switch to Construct and hope their community continues to develop stable versions for future operating systems, or stick with MMF2 and hope that better ways of object handling are made in the future. I'll probably starting asking around to see if there's an extension I can use that'll help out. 
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