> The moment that you have a dynamically allocated array, you are either dropping safety (e.g. expecting the developer to perform bounds checks when necessary) or performance (e.g. the compiler inserts bounds checks at runtime).

Yes, that's true. So? The original claim is that it is self-evident that this tradeoff should be resolved in favor of performance in the design of the language, and it just isn't (self-evident). If anything, it is self-evident to me that the tradeoff should be resolved in favor of safety in today's world.