Are the lower layers really any less Goldbergian though? I would bet that everything from the physical hardware on up is laden with path dependencies, workarou

Are the lower layers really any less Goldbergian though? I would bet that everything from the physical hardware on up is laden with path dependencies, workarounds, and efficiency vs portability tradeoffs. There's more to goodness than technical aesthetics -- ubiquity is important and arguably harder to achieve.