That doesnt sound like premature optimisation to me. A problem certainly, but premature optimisation should be exactly what it sounds like; optimising something

That doesnt sound like premature optimisation to me. A problem certainly, but premature optimisation should be exactly what it sounds like; optimising something before it needs optimisation. Or perhaps it frequently manifests in that way, but I wouldnt say thats what it is. I know that in my case its much more general, usually because my approach (when Im working on personal projects of course) to optimisation is to change the approach rather than change the code. As you say, overly optimised code is difficult to read and maintain, which in my view is a problem of optimisation itself, so I just try to find compromise and do something thats more efficient. But I'd still call that premature optimisation, because its rarely triggered by a problem.