one thing i'd worry about with "runs unmodified in cpython" though: python ints are arbitrary precision and nim's aren't. so the same code can give you a bignum under cpython and a wraparound under the compiled path. how do you handle that, or is matching cpython semantics explicitly a non-goal for the typed subset?

I've spent a fair bit of time generating specialized straight-line code for hot Python paths, killing the per-call attribute and dict lookups the interpreter does. The lesson was that dispatch-bound code claws back most of its overhead without ever leaving CPython. Where AOT-to-native actually pulls ahead is numeric and loop-bound work, where the interpreter loop and boxing dominate. Your 512x288 render is exactly that case, which is why it looks so strong.

So the benchmark I'd want isn't render time, it's what fraction of a real module transpiles with no rewrites. That number tells me whether this is a systems language or a fast path I have to hand-shape around. Codon and Shedskin both hit that wall. Curious where Nimic draws the line.