> They have a huge program, it is 2GiB minus epsilon of .text,

but the article says 25+GiB including debug symbols, in a single binary?

also, I appreciate your enthusiasm in assuming that because some people do something in an organization, it is applied consistently everywhere. Hell, if it were microsoft other departments would try to shoot down the "debug tooling optimization" dpt

Yes, the 25GB figure in the article is basically irrelevant to the 2GB .text section concern. Most ELF files that size are 95%+ debuginfo.

ELF is just a container format and you can put literally anything into one of its sections. Whether the DWARF sections are in "the binary" or in another named file is really quite beside the point.