What makes compilation fast is a good goal at places with large code bases and build times. Maybe makes less sense in smaller startups with a few 100k LOC.

This describes the classic scenario of "You don't have google's problems, so maybe stop trying to hype google's toys". Protobuf feels similarly developer-hostile vs alternatives, and I remember a lot of similar sentiment around using it. It's funny that people don't seem to learn the lesson.