Comment by alkonaut

> if a problem like this isn't fixed, it's because they've done the calculations and decided it's not worthwhile.

If it ever reached the point where it had to be an item in a priority list, it's already a failure. Some developer should have seen the quadratic behavior and fixed it. It's not the type of thing that should ever even be part of a prioritized backlog. It's a showstopper bug and it's visible for every developer.