From my understanding the max_user_connections does in fact limit the max connections for that user. Whether creating a new mysql user and using that for some queries to try balance the load betweenthem. C&Ped this from a thread on webhostingtalk.
max connections = total of all possible connections. If this limit is hit, new connections will be blocked until a connection is available.
max_user_connections is as it suggests - a way of limiting an individual user so as to not consume all resources. Pointless setting this to the same as max connections as it is an implied setting.
Regardless of how many users you have, it is always a good idea to limit them to slightly less than the max connections - you never know when you, the admin might need to connect to monitor, backup, analyze etc while the server is under load and you would want 1 or 2 connections available no matter what!