Software for critical infrastructure often handles no/low memory situations in a graceful manner. I've worked on network switch software where we were expected

Software for critical infrastructure often handles no/low memory situations in a graceful manner. I've worked on network switch software where we were expected to work indefinitely with zero remaining memory. A single packet drop is unacceptable, at 10-40G line rate. Any new malloc needs to be justified with a design document. So yeah, average user software can do a lot, it's just that we've given up on reliability and robustness as an industry. That's why sometimes your phone fails to make a 911 call, and sometimes you need to reset your car.