After being advised that upgrading to more recent firmware fixes this problem, I've installed Dell driver update R149666, which upgrades the Perc 5i firmware to version v5.1.1-0040. That seems to solve this problem for me even when I boot back into the unmodified 2.6.16 kernel. I therefore believe that this bug should be considered a firmware bug instead of a kernel bug, and closed in Debian's BTS. Thanks!
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