I believe this was also (at least partially) done for performance reasons! In general, compared to a JIT, an interpreter is faster to start executing code, and

I believe this was also (at least partially) done for performance reasons! In general, compared to a JIT, an interpreter is faster to start executing code, and can more quickly (and efficiently!) execute code that will only run once. V8's "Ignition" started as a way to replace the "baseline" JIT in their engine. It can begin executing code while the optimizing compiler gets up to speed and analyzes what needs to be optimized and it can execute code that is extremely likely to only run once (like top level javascript). The bytecode representation they use for Ignition is also used by their optimizing compiler "TurboFan", which means that they throw away the actual source code after it's been converted to bytecode, saving quite a lot of memory! All together this means that the Ignition+TurboFan pipeline is faster to start executing, has lower resource usage, and is much simpler than the old stack of a "baseline" JIT (full-codegen) and their old optimizing compiler (crankshaft). Being able to disable the optimizing JIT entirely is just another bonus of the architecture!