alt Hacker NewsThe 1980's US car industry comes to mind. Nearly wiped out because they refused to make efficient vehicles. SpaceX is arguably showing how a rethink towards efficient can take over an entire industry. I am sure there are strong examples in software as well but they aren't coming to mind.
I think when successful, optimization really just means 'finally built right' and people forget the ridiculously inefficient ways before.
I would argue about 30% of Apple's success was just from not being slow annoying bloatware. I could never stomach it, but I know a lot of people who basically rage-quit Windows for the Apple ecosystem. I did the same, but for Linux.