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The perf difference was due to the compiler being able to infer 'const' by way of 'static'.

Advocating 'static' when your actual intent is 'const' does less experienced readers a disservice; they will assume that 'static' is meant to make things faster, and be disappointed when it doesn't work for non-constant values.

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I am not advocating static. I'm advocating for looking at what the compiler outputs when surprising behavior is encountered. The example is extracted from a larger piece of code, and I reported the minimal case as-is.

If anything, the title is meant to be read as "isn't it amusing that something apparently unrelated such as `static` causes a performance improvement".

That said, I have added a note clarifying this at top of the post now.

I thought you made your point neatly and succinctly. Code can be optimized on multiple levels; the compiled result is clearly more efficient. This lesson applies regardless of the language being compiled.

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