You are correct, that the hardware can do so without too much overhead.
But I was arguing from the software point of view: segmented memory means no simple pointer arithmetic above the 32-bit limit. That means that software managing datasets above 4GB will always need special-casing, or be written with indirect allocation in all cases.
I don't see a good reason for mandating that kind of complexity in code. If you have a solution for allowing 64bit linear addressing in code, I'm all for it.
But I was arguing from the software point of view: segmented memory means no simple pointer arithmetic above the 32-bit limit. That means that software managing datasets above 4GB will always need special-casing, or be written with indirect allocation in all cases.
I don't see a good reason for mandating that kind of complexity in code. If you have a solution for allowing 64bit linear addressing in code, I'm all for it.