I've also been lead to believe that silicon wafers of appropriate purity are enormously expensive as well, so packing more transistors per unit was important fo

I've also been lead to believe that silicon wafers of appropriate purity are enormously expensive as well, so packing more transistors per unit was important for the economics there. Nevertheless, you're correct that cost pressures will probably lead to other ways of finding efficiencies. Still, it feels like the fun part of those curves are behind us these days.