Maybe, but I'm allowed to like more than one language, no? :) But seriously, I don't think AOT can ever match a JIT on peak performance without reducing the ab

Maybe, but I'm allowed to like more than one language, no? :) But seriously, I don't think AOT can ever match a JIT on peak performance without reducing the abstraction level and significantly increasing programmer burden, and much of Java's design is around "we automatically turn RAM into speed." It's a great value proposition for huge swathes of the software industry, but I don't think it's necessarily the best strategy for niches that require performance and are RAM-constrained. I like Java and I like low-level programming even though it requires more effort regardless of language.