Comment by hnlmorg

> Memory access is frequently a bottleneck on modern CPUs,

Memory access has always been a bottleneck, even in the 90s. That’s why CPUs have cache on the die.

But the difference between RAM and cache is completely irrelevant here because hot paths (ie where youd actually notice the difference as a user) should be small enough to fit inside the CPU cache anyway.

> More importantly, unlike demos, production code is often optimized for interrelated factors of development cost, maintainability, and the use of familiar or popular tools and techniques over runtime efficiency.

Which is still a trade off and a point I’ve also made repeatedly in this discussion.