I remember reading that the GNU project was rather keen on avoiding and removing artificial restrictions. In other words, if a feature was useful and reasonable

I remember reading that the GNU project was rather keen on avoiding and removing artificial restrictions. In other words, if a feature was useful and reasonable then it should be seriously considered for inclusion. As for the aggressive optimizations that are sometimes seen, I assume it’s just people wanting to improve a tool that’ll be used everywhere, more for fun and/or notoriety than anything else.