> All of the advice in that article isn't going to bring your server latency for an API call down from 1000ms to 30ms, but rather from 30ms to 25ms.

Of course it will.

If your backend service is already suboptimal, and running at 10x worse performance, optimizing that will give you, well, a 10x performance boost.

Imagine replacing poor in-memory reimplementation of database queries that most graphql servers do with actual opttimised database queries. And a better code on top.

Boom. You're operating close to the speed of light.