"For example, we should care less if a proposed mobile chip or compiler optimization slows down SPEC, and care more if it speeds up Python or JavaScript!"
But anything that impacts SPEC benchmarks (and the others we use for C code) is also going to impact Python performance. If you could find a new instruction that offers a boost to the Python interpreter performance that'd be nice, but it's not going to change the bigger picture of where the language fit in.
"For example, we should care less if a proposed mobile chip or compiler optimization slows down SPEC, and care more if it speeds up Python or JavaScript!"
But anything that impacts SPEC benchmarks (and the others we use for C code) is also going to impact Python performance. If you could find a new instruction that offers a boost to the Python interpreter performance that'd be nice, but it's not going to change the bigger picture of where the language fit in.