And, in fact, Mashey specifically discusses what you identified, and what Houle wrote (rushing to post a gotcha on HN, obviously without having read Mashey's lengthy writings).

Yeah, always good to read it. He goes into some detail about a hypothetical VAX-based x86 killer, tho some of it is "when I had beers with the guys designing the VAX..." reminiscing.

Comp.arch was something really special. Guys like Mash, John McCalpin, Bob Colwell, Eugene Maya, Mitch Alsup, Terje Mathisen...folks who really, really understood computers, what the real tradeoffs are, did actual homework instead of guessing, and were generally able to discuss the issues without being jerks. Good times.