Even then though C has always had trivial to use and very tightly integrated inline ASM that you could use at any time and had been a thing since inception all those years ago for this very reason.
oh yeah I mean the source code for Driver has tonnes of inline assembly inside C files, so there was definitely value in using it. Writing the entire game in assembly is just taking it a step further, and like someone else said - if that's what you're most comfortable with, I don't think that's as insane as it sounds.