You're correct that 5% increase in resource usage is probably not noticeable for most orgs. Its important to know what audience you're building for. I believe

You're correct that 5% increase in resource usage is probably not noticeable for most orgs. Its important to know what audience you're building for. I believe the audience for otel consists largely of companies that don't look anything like Google. So its fine to sacrifice that last bit of perf gain if it means the code is easier to use and maintain. FWIW, it also appears that companies like Google would fork or reimplement such systems anyway.