Yes, it would be 20% wasteful. But giving up freedom can be more costly.
Also, the 20% would be open to further optimization by the community, so it wouldn't be that bad in practice, probably.
In some commercial contexts with the savings from that 20%, you can buy a lot freedom and then with the freedom you bought you can make more free things :)
Could all be true, maybe, somehow. But I sleep better when my castle is not in someone else's kingdom. That alone is enough for me to accept the small performance penalty.