So, how much do you spend on web servers (not including databases) per week? You could fix Ruby templating, or just multiply that by 10. Or you can try to overhaul the templating. It's a boring problem.
Databases are much more interesting. You simply can't scale databases up trivially. A N times linear improvement in the code (due to, say, caching) means you don't have to throw N^2 servers (if that's how your database scales) at the problem.
Linear load reductions have superlinear cost reductions for things like databases. Linear load reductions have linear cost reductions for web servers. This is why people don't care so much.
Though yes, it would be nice to see Ruby templating a little bit faster.
Databases are much more interesting. You simply can't scale databases up trivially. A N times linear improvement in the code (due to, say, caching) means you don't have to throw N^2 servers (if that's how your database scales) at the problem.
Linear load reductions have superlinear cost reductions for things like databases. Linear load reductions have linear cost reductions for web servers. This is why people don't care so much.
Though yes, it would be nice to see Ruby templating a little bit faster.