My simplified layman's mental model is pixel resolution in cameras: back when we were limited only by the sensor, quadrupling megapixels would have allowed us t

My simplified layman's mental model is pixel resolution in cameras: back when we were limited only by the sensor, quadrupling megapixels would have allowed us to e.g. read a sign twice far away (ignoring noise/shake issues). Now that the resolution of the sensors usually exceeds that of the lense, more megapixels will still help us tease a little more information from the same optical projection (again, ignoring noise/shake), but those benefits are much smaller than they used to be. With chip process node "nanometers", I assume that "the other limit" (the role taken by the lens in the camera analogy) is the size required by transistors if we had infinite resolution. Lower "nanometers" will allow us to get closer to that hypothetical best, but the benefit will be smaller and smaller.