Optimization most definitely is science - if done right, anyhow. You conduct observations (benchmarks) and form a hypothesis about what will improve speed/memo

Optimization most definitely is science - if done right, anyhow. You conduct observations (benchmarks) and form a hypothesis about what will improve speed/memory usage. You make the changes and conduct experiments to see if your hypothesis was correct. You draw conclusions based on the results and if your hypothesis was wrong, you change your hypothesis and try again. Is optimization not science? Edit: But yeah, design IMO will always be art as much as science.