I'd say it's also instructive to consider different aspects of performance. For example, many games start up unnecessarily slowly because nobody bothered to opt

I'd say it's also instructive to consider different aspects of performance. For example, many games start up unnecessarily slowly because nobody bothered to optimise it. Users will load the game, then spend a fair while playing it, so the slow startup time doesn't hugely impact their experience. Hence, improving frame rate is a much better investment