So your claiming fraps uses zero resources?
Currently I have Fraps running. It is using 5400kb(Not even six thousand out of eight million available) of memory and less than 1% of my CPU. Having Fraps running while not recording does not impact your system performance in any notable way. My CPU does not come close to 100% load while playing any game. I have not claimed running programs doesn't use resources. I said it will not degrade your computer. Very different.
You don't seem to be too keen on the idea of looking at your FPS, and I get that, but please don't claim the performance issues is because of people running other things at the same time. I would have to run several thousand of instances of Fraps for it to make any difference.
I also judge a game by how it looks and responds. When I started Emergency 5 I noticed stuttering and texture pop in. I clicked the Fraps FPS hotkey to see my FPS and noticed it was around 15. I then thought I must be doing something wrong. I restarted my computer, updated drivers and tinkered with settings. Nothing helped. I then noticed people on different forums also had low FPS on even better systems than mine. Emergency 5 is not playable(at 1920x1080 with a stable 60fps) for a majority of the players and that is a bad thing that the publisher is responsible for. I bought a game, not a slideshow.
You know what? For the sake of argument I will close every single running process that I don't need to play Emergency 5 and see if I notice any stuttering. I will also unplug all but one monitor as that could have an effect. I'll update this in a minute or two with the result. Edit: Yep, still horrible stuttering with every non essential process gone.
