I don't think the performance part of your statement is true. There exist techniques for generating extremely efficient LR automata (e.g. https://link.springer.

I don't think the performance part of your statement is true. There exist techniques for generating extremely efficient LR automata (e.g. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00267043 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00267043) where the equivalent handwritten code would be a goto-ridden mess.