Earlier quoted context omitted.
The issue is that if you’re developing like this on WP you don’t gain much from it except the ability to use a select few plugins and an admin UI. At this point why not use a solid PHP framework like Laravel?
I can answer this: because people do not want to pay for a developer, they want to pay for a designer. (It is exceedingly rare to find both in a single person.) The designer can, within the structure and strictures of Wordpress, build a site with all the whizzy things the client wants, and they can charge $X for it. A developer can do all of that as well, but they will probably need a designer as well (see above pare…
If performance is a real business concern (and when is it not?), hire developers, not designers.
Hire developers, not WordPress developers. Because the latter will push WP onto a project where clearly the downsides, like performance, outweigh the benefits. But the latter may pick WP when it is a good fit.