As a not-currently-webdev, it seems to me like making a good website, on a technical level, is closer to an engineering trade-space (as opposed to "just do it b

As a not-currently-webdev, it seems to me like making a good website, on a technical level, is closer to an engineering trade-space (as opposed to "just do it better") than I had thought. Splitting static content into smaller files allows for better cache utilization, but increases page load times due to higher latency when those items aren't cached. Bundling content reduces roundtrip penalties (latency, various per-request processing overheads) at the cost of greater bandwidth usage. Wealthier users usually are latency-limited, as opposed to bandwidth-limited. Mobile users and poorer users in wealthier countries are usually limited on both. Users in poorer countries have it even worse. The only way that you can "win" appears to be by making your content as static and as simple as possible.