You and I could probably debate at length the merits of the trade-offs involved and the effect such trade-offs would have on fulfilling any given threat model.

You and I could probably debate at length the merits of the trade-offs involved and the effect such trade-offs would have on fulfilling any given threat model. The point I was making is that it's not 10x as expensive now, it's probably 3-4x, and that cost is likely to become lower in the future anyhow. It's not specialised in the sense that it's single purpose - it's niche, so, the implication of "special purpose" in the computing sense, as in limited in functionaly for the purpose of greatly improved performance for specific tasks, doesn't really apply.