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The main reason why lenses have become significantly better over the last 10-20 years (certainly at the consumer level) is mainly because camera sensors have be

The main reason why lenses have become significantly better over the last 10-20 years (certainly at the consumer level) is mainly because camera sensors have become significantly better over the last 10-20 years, and therefore the lenses have had to be engineered to a higher standard to avoid the lens foibles being quite so obvious in the higher resolution images that are now possible. The engineering principles are largely the same with a few smaller advances, but to accomodate the demanded-for improvements consumer lenses are now bigger, heavier, more expensive, and have more interesting optical designs. It's purely demand-driven, not technology-driven.

ben7799 3y ago
Exactly. It can't be ignored that these new lenses are much bigger & heavier and much more expensive as a result. That helps a lot. But it makes them worse if a) you need to carry them a long way for your type of photography b) your photography doesn't actually benefit from or require their advantages. A lot of these benefits seem more important to the measurement focused hobbyists. But if you don't actually care about shooting at f/1.2-f/1.4 a lot of the time you might want to save the money.