Yea, totally agree, but something like cars have far less variation than do SpaceX's rockets. Say, the automatic transmission isn't massively coupled (engineer constraint wise) to the rest of the car unless you're doing a hybrid or something.
That means the local improvement (better gears, weight reduction, etc.) is most of the improvement - not in conjunction with much else. It's why you'll often find struts from a 1999 model that are drop-in replacements for the 2012 even though the cars look very different.
That means the local improvement (better gears, weight reduction, etc.) is most of the improvement - not in conjunction with much else. It's why you'll often find struts from a 1999 model that are drop-in replacements for the 2012 even though the cars look very different.