You're getting downvoted but i think it's a fair point that revisiting win32k in any language might come up with some opportunities for optimization along the way. Performance best practices have changed a lot since that component was written.
I suspect there reason the parent is being downvoted is that "So code optimized for 80486 machines in the 90's" isn't something we actually know. Do you really think Microsoft hasn't touched this code since the 90s? It comes across as sour grapes.
My understanding of what the presenter meant here was "this is gnarly code that's been around for a very long time." Not that it literally remains solely optimized for the 486.
I seem to recall hearing from MS affiliated people in my network that someone revisited GDI circa 2015? It also wouldn't shock me if there's more that can be done.
Also worth noting that various parts of MS have declared GDI as legacy at various points in time. Yet it remains a critically important component.
