maybe if performance is really an issue, protobufs shouldn't be used ?
there is also flatbuffers, capnp and purely C++ serializers: zpp, yas... but protobufs are definitely convenient !
there is also flatbuffers, capnp and purely C++ serializers: zpp, yas... but protobufs are definitely convenient !
What is a real issue is marketing performance. As it turns out, everyone loves a story about something going fast. So it pays to create these kinds of optimizations for the sake of the story, used to sell the product to the developer who makes choices based on what they think feels good.
(Technically protobuf supports JSON encoding, but its additional work to enable, again diminishing the developer experience)