The startup performance issue is just a regular difficult issue, as far as I'm aware. I don't think it has much to do with the goal of "being readable pseudocode" or something. It's getting better with time too.
The "readable pseudocode" kind of code is exactly the sort of code in Julia that you almost always expect to be compiled down to native code quite efficiently. The kind of pseudocode I usually see is either straightforward loops iterating over something where the compiler can infer all the necessary information, or calls to library functions where somebody else has already made sure it's good. I use this a lot in my own code, and, like I said, I don't think there is a tradeoff.
I don't think it's quite the same as self-deception. The way I understood it is that it's more like alcohol: the first thing to go is your ability to judge for yourself whether your judgment is impaired.
The "readable pseudocode" kind of code is exactly the sort of code in Julia that you almost always expect to be compiled down to native code quite efficiently. The kind of pseudocode I usually see is either straightforward loops iterating over something where the compiler can infer all the necessary information, or calls to library functions where somebody else has already made sure it's good. I use this a lot in my own code, and, like I said, I don't think there is a tradeoff.