[chii]

> easiest path for improving the performance.

upgrading should not be seen as an alternative to performance engineering though. Even if upgrading _does_ bring in some performance improvements.

Upgrading should be because of reasons such as security updates, and bug-fixes, and to continue to reap the improvements/features in the next version.

[pferde]

No, not an alternative, but I'd argue that considering new versions should be a part of performance engineering. If one of the "improvements/features in the next version" is more optimized and performant code, you want to "reap" it (after of course considering and testing the upgrade from other points of view.