[emcq]

You can't really make all things be equal and get increased efficiency and longetivity for most cases.

The trade-off are explicitly made to have reduced longevity to have better efficiency.

Take tires for example. A low rolling resistance lightweight XC tire will have significant advantages over a dual casing 2.6" DH tire. The XC tire will smoke a DH tire but not have better longevity on dirt. The XC tire will be slower on some DH tracks and the DH will be slower on XC. If you ride a DH tire on a road it will ironically wear down more quickly than a typical XC tire, and you can shred an XC tire in one day on technical DH.

[matthewowen]

I was speaking specifically about drivetrains.

Tyres generally trade traction off against longevity, plus, yes, specialization is a big consideration.