In the new technology sector this is certainly true. Find your product-market fit and then optimize when you become mature and scale up. But aren't we talking

In the new technology sector this is certainly true. Find your product-market fit and then optimize when you become mature and scale up. But aren't we talking about extremely mature kernel code here? My impression is that all kernel distros in high use are optimized but they are general use software. The degree to which you may optimize software is constrained but the diversity of use cases you must support.