Comment by eropple

Oh no, it was slow--but it was slow and they were used to it. (And there were plenty of routes--probably somewhere close to a thousand at the time, in 2011?)

The problem I hadn't fully understood was a mix of the last point you suggested--tedium's just how it is--and a set of libraries built up as coping mechanisms that were intrinsically tied to the servlets process. Not really written to be able to be shimmed into a better world without dragging the whole thing there, and not enough appetite to try for it.