This is the same reason why a faster garbage collector makes a huge difference to compiled code compared to interpreted. When an AST interpreted languages gets

This is the same reason why a faster garbage collector makes a huge difference to compiled code compared to interpreted. When an AST interpreted languages gets a VM, gets native code, each step reveals GC to be slow. You might go from 1% time spent in the GC to 15% to 60% (numbers of out thin air).