If we can automatically derive compiler optimizations, we might be able to sidestep some of the substantial engineering challenges involved in creating and main

If we can automatically derive compiler optimizations, we might be able to sidestep some of the substantial engineering challenges involved in creating and maintaining a high-quality compiler I think it's clear, but you may have assumed it's about something it's not? It's about saving effort in writing an optimizing compiler. Have you ever looked at how many and how big LLVM's optimization passes are? The automatically derived passes may not result in code that's as fast as the hand-written passes. I assume they would have mentioned that if it were the case. But they take less effort to develop.