[ricardobeat]

Most of the gains in there are from stripping out comments. That plus whitespace removal gets you most of the benefit. I don't think the parent was advocating for dropping minification completely, but investing massive effort when you're already at the crest of the curve.

[diamondo25]

Stripping out comments would be one, but eventually remove all useless code and optimizing it using tools like Google Closure Compiler is way more effective in most websites that use a single bundle for everything.

[ricardobeat]

When the subject is CSS, dead code removal is a way more complex problem, and only possible if your usage falls within certain constraints. Best bet is a component system with scopes styles that ensures you are only loading what is required.

[Klathmon]

It's not like this is a zero sum game.

Attempts at improvement don't hurt at all, and in some cases can help a ton.

[iainmerrick]

But they can hurt sometimes -- not all optimizations are always safe.

[Klathmon]

Of course, but there is still value in "unsafe optimizations" for those who won't be impacted by them.