>On a slightly related note, a just-in-time compiler with a superb garbage >collector can be more performant in some situations due to its ability to >profile and optimize the code while the application is running.

No Garbage collector can be faster then a programm that produces no garbage at all, because its programmer knew what he was doing.

>For $189, I can slap a 240GB SSD in the machine to make software more >performant. The question you have to ask is: How much optimization can >a senior-level programmer accomplish for $189?

This ist the typical academic way of optimization: Let's write some programm and then throw hardware on it until it runs fast enough. In the real world, ressources are limited. That $189 are needed for each install of your garbage-collected software, not just YOUR personal develoment machine.