What I don't like about the "generics dilemma" framing is that the problem exists regardless of whether your language has generics or not.

Here's what I mean. Say you have a Vector class that can operate on ints or floats. You could make that a generic, in which case the compiler can either (a) duplicate the code for each type (monomorphize) or (b) do dictionary passing and get slower runtime. But if your language doesn't have generics, you have exactly the same problem: you as the programmer must (a) duplicate the code for ints and floats or (b) use an interface and get slower runtime. Not having generics doesn't solve anything. It just means that you, the programmer, have to do things that the compiler would otherwise do for you.