> In many cases, this software doesn't even do anything that is functionally different from 10 or 20 years ago, but it still consumes many more resources I wou

> In many cases, this software doesn't even do anything that is functionally different from 10 or 20 years ago, but it still consumes many more resources I would argue that in most cases the choice is not between fast, optimized and slow, unoptimized software. The choice is between having a functioning program (using a universal, "reasonably" efficient stack) and not having one at all (because the amount of resources it takes to develop a customized, low-level implementation is prohibitively high). A good example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tInaI3pU19Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tInaI3pU19Y A custom 3D engine performs immensely better than a comparable Unity project, but it took the author 3 to 4 times the effort.