> premature optimization is the root of all evil right? Making sure they're aren't a bunch of alloc's or GC spent in the hot path of a high performance library

> premature optimization is the root of all evil right? Making sure they're aren't a bunch of alloc's or GC spent in the hot path of a high performance library is hardly a premature optimization. If you're tackling problems in DB land changes are you already have a fairly clear picture of what needs to happen and have a list of shortcomings you're trying to avoid. Memory layout, buffers, wals, etc are all things that should be accounted for upfront.