As the industry moves toward AV1, AV2, and beyond, libvpx remains a bedrock. But for the video engineer staring at a progress bar moving at 0.5 frames per second, the desire for a faster, lighter, smarter libvpx remains a wistful hope—a dream of a world where quality has no cost, and time is no object. Until that day comes, we are stuck with reality, encoding our dreams one frame at a time.