The problem with this argument is that there are many contradicting sample points. Like chrome.

On one hand, Google created the JS-Engine V8 which finally made the web fast. But on the other hand, did nothing to fix the RAM issues that came with that until recent years.

So I see it as "Let's do performance only when it's an advantage for us". Which all of the OP examples falls to. OP want to conclude from that that performance=advantage so everyone need to work on it all the time (because who will ignore advantages?), but all we see is if(performance=advantage){refactor}. Which does not support his conclusion.

Example cases are startups, monopoles, high cost (like refactoring bank code) etc. which have other silos of advantage.