Interesting, with the price hikes and bundles to come, we might indeed see a resurgence in physical media. It will stay niche for sure, but looks like demand is about to grow.

In which case you want one or the other? This is illustrated in the Rust case which has its own struggles, but the question applies more largely in my opinion.

Making your own allocator? This is definitely something to consider and measure.

Might be a good alternative to JSON in some cases.