<i>&gt;There are really cool and smart algorithms that make reference counting much better, but then the appeal of a simple natural algorithm for collecting garbage has come and gone.</i><p>That&#x27;s probably true, but if the win is pauseless automatic memory management that doesn&#x27;t require twice as much memory as using a GC, then it may be worth it.<p>I think, realistically, we&#x27;ll have to accept that both tracing GC and reference counting (however smart) will always suffer from some drawbacks that manual memory management can solve. The reverse is also true.