Yes HP is King, but most people have a modest amount of the natural aspirated kind that is not readily available because of the physical state of their rides and in this case, will probably lean over to trying to retrieve that available HP with less mass.

Personally, I like a manageable engine that scoots with out sweat and can last a long time as time is the main phenomenon that I don't have enough of when it comes to engine maintenance.
Maybe its my lack of patience with such things.
Funny enough though, I must admit that I do spend that unavailable time here and there fabricating stuff for the art sake of it anyway.
Though power adders do make it more simpler and are finally the new breed of car on the street and strip, there are still a fair amount of carbureted mills out there and some, not all get it done on the Jenny Craig doctrine.
I also suspect that the lag being witnessed in the performance scene these days is due to many heads that simply do not want to tune cars based on the new technology, but rather just turn screws. Old school vs new and improved and maybe its also a generational thing.

Talking about weight watching and with out a long story, shortly before the Cat came out of the bag at Dodge, I was in talks with the powers that be about a special limited edition "Alley cat" lightweight version of the HC and it was a horses hair from becoming a reality. Unfortunately some things came into play and it was cut off the balance sheet in the ninth inning. It would have been an animal along with some rather special features and collector merchandising never before presented by Dodge.
Lets just say that I am very, very close to a test driver for all new makes coming down the pipeline, and I was impressed rather quickly on how powerful that Cat was, but the Fat Lady still bothered me. LOL.