[SlowRobotAhead]

As to the optimization and the user not being able to and/or not having the tools to do it.

This was one of my favorite uses for ML. However the specific result i remember wasn’t that useable. The short version was they asked a model to program this FPGA to make a 1khz sin wave on a pin hooked to a speaker by listening to the result. It eventually worked, and the FPGA did indeed output a 1KHz wave. But... when the logic gates set in the FPGA were examined it was nonsense. And it wouldn’t work on any other chip. It was using defects in the silicon and was truly a one off success.

Obviously this optimization is only possible for a machine but yes, the tools from high level to bitstream could be a ton better.