Paul Tan [off-list ref] writes:
I think it's still good to have the ideal in mind though (and whoops I
forgot to put in the word "ideal" in the text).
Using or not using fork is merely one of the trade-offs we can make.
"If all other things are equal, no fork is better than a fork" is a
meaningless statement, as all other things are never equal in real
life---doing things internally will have a cost of having to clean
up and a risk to get that part wrong, for example. Engineering is a
fine balancing act and setting an absolute goal is not a healthy
attitude.