I think you are misunderstanding the phrase trade-off. A trade-off means that something is good for one thing, but not as good for something else. Your examples are exactly an example of a trade-off. A hammer is good at hammering nails, but not good for screwing in screws, because there has been a trade-off to design the tool to make it better for hammering nails than for screwing in screws.

All tools are better at one thing then another. The point of examining trade-offs is to decide which advantages are more appropriate to which circumstance.