This is a frustrating position.

Everything is layers. We build things on top of other things. If every layer had that attitude, then the bloat would be enormous. It's already getting there.

We should praise judicious effort into optimizing any of the resources used in the systems build, at every layer.

I understand where you're getting at. IMO you're barking at the wrong tree: the problem with bloatware will not be solved by prometheus shipping a lighter statically linked binary.