That's certainly a value of a 'project prep step' (whether it involves static export or not). Not also, though, that a service like CloudFlare now puts some of

That's certainly a value of a 'project prep step' (whether it involves static export or not). Not also, though, that a service like CloudFlare now puts some of these optimizations (minification, asset-combination, obfuscation, etc) into the cache layer, as optional cloud 'app' services to be enabled/disabled/paid-for as desired. Not saying that way is better for all, but it has potential as a convenience for some, getting those same expert-level optimization benefits while retaining a simple project/deployment structure.