Yeah I agree that everything typically runs in XMM registers and that's what people want. I'm not sure what about the availability of extended precision makes it s a misfeature? For some cases it IS what you want, and it's nice to be able to opt in to using it..

EDIT: If I had some application where I needed the extended range, like maybe I was going to run into the exact numbers above, I'd appreciate the ability to opt-in to this. Totally agree I wouldn't want the compiler to surprise me with it, but also not terrible, or useless.

Code w/ Assembly: https://godbolt.org/z/W3ZmqJ Output: https://onlinegdb.com/Sy_I3Q1ME