Why the final plugin filter is only half of the architecture

https://developer.woocommerce.com/2026/07/21/selective-plugin-loading/

WooCommerce Engineering recently published a useful account of how WooCommerce.com reduces WordPress bootstrap cost by loading fewer plugins on selected requests.

The article deserves attention for a simple reason: it names and measures a problem that WordPress performance discussions often overlook.

A WordPress installation has one global list of active plugins.