To clarify, I was trying to use "specious" as a synonym of "flawed." I thought this was the common usage, but apparently not.
As to your point, obviously no one should be making any decisions off of flawed benchmarks, but flawed benchmarks (not so far as outright lies, just flawed) at least give me an objective justification to investigate further.
Even some flawed benchmarks could help turn the initial tide of responses like "this is X written in Blub, it's bound to be better!" or "this is a faster X! Now everything will be twice as fast!" They're silly examples, but it seems like every time a new technology comes out, these are the kinds of knee-jerk, overly-optimistic reactions people tend to have.
As to your point, obviously no one should be making any decisions off of flawed benchmarks, but flawed benchmarks (not so far as outright lies, just flawed) at least give me an objective justification to investigate further.
Even some flawed benchmarks could help turn the initial tide of responses like "this is X written in Blub, it's bound to be better!" or "this is a faster X! Now everything will be twice as fast!" They're silly examples, but it seems like every time a new technology comes out, these are the kinds of knee-jerk, overly-optimistic reactions people tend to have.