a lot of code is shared between different tools. Busybox has one copy of those. Before you mention shared libraries. There is still overhead, as well as complic

a lot of code is shared between different tools. Busybox has one copy of those. Before you mention shared libraries. There is still overhead, as well as complicating the usage (it needs to find a shared lib when starting instead of just having all it needs in the binary). This isn't really a property of the executable format. Any format would have the same problem.