Good developers can make fast sites (though that's not a given!!), but product managers will absolutely bloat your site.
"Add this third tracking/analytics tool";
"Add this custom ad format here";
"Oh this partner will give us tons of money if we put this widget on the page";
"Oh let's use Brightcove video player";
"Oh let's auto-play videos"; "drive-by A/B testing";
"We don't control this third-party 2MB image",
"The widget streams a 23MB .WAV file for background music that only auto-plays in mobile";
"Why build this in-house when we can just use this good third-party library?";
"Good third-party library costs too much, let's use this horrible but much cheaper one instead"; etc.
AMP allows you to tell your product manager: "Sorry! Not supported." Of course, with enough responses like this, a decision eventually comes down to not use AMP.
> AMP allows you to tell your product manager: "Sorry! Not supported."
I like this reason. It's both a good reason for AMP to exist (albeit to solve a sad problem, with the product managers), as well as to justify not using it myself :-)
> Of course, with enough responses like this, a decision eventually comes down to not use AMP.
Perhaps. But having an external set of guidelines that relate to an all-or-nothing benefit (inclusion in Google's AMP program) seems helpful to me (from the eye of a developer who cares about bloat).
A small team of good developers could also formulate their own set of guidelines in order to avoid bloat and achieve fast loading. But those guidelines will have to be guarded by the developers against "political" forces, and there's a distinct possibility that more and more compromises will be made.
Exclusion from the AMP program provides a line in the sand, so to say.
"Add this third tracking/analytics tool"; "Add this custom ad format here"; "Oh this partner will give us tons of money if we put this widget on the page"; "Oh let's use Brightcove video player"; "Oh let's auto-play videos"; "drive-by A/B testing"; "We don't control this third-party 2MB image", "The widget streams a 23MB .WAV file for background music that only auto-plays in mobile"; "Why build this in-house when we can just use this good third-party library?"; "Good third-party library costs too much, let's use this horrible but much cheaper one instead"; etc.
AMP allows you to tell your product manager: "Sorry! Not supported." Of course, with enough responses like this, a decision eventually comes down to not use AMP.