This argument works only for enterprise/server development, where hardware is under your control.
When developing for the consumer market, hardware is not "expensive", hardware is simply not available: users control their hardware, and even the argument of "ever increasing gigabytes and gigahertz" doesn't work anymore, as more and more prefer to trade speed for increased portability or (surprise!) smaller price.
When developing for the consumer market, hardware is not "expensive", hardware is simply not available: users control their hardware, and even the argument of "ever increasing gigabytes and gigahertz" doesn't work anymore, as more and more prefer to trade speed for increased portability or (surprise!) smaller price.