Min/maxing is the very widespread practice of getting every piece of performance possible out of your character or activity. It is obviously effective. It is even ideal if we assume that you can always stick to the most efficient behaviour, but I don’t think that assumption always holds.
Perfect in theory
There are a LOT of examples where what is perfect in theory is not perfect in practice. Ultimately the real application of anything is always the best gauge of what works. If something is perfect in theory, but fails when you try to do it because of something that is outside the theory in some way, then it is obviously not perfect. The quest for perfection can also be boring, especially if you do not enjoy the meticulous attention to detail necessary to continuously improve at one hyper specific thing.
Perfect goldmaking
You could calculate the gph of everything you have ever tried doing to always do spend your time optimally. For some of you this may even be the best approach, but you have to have the kind of personality where you enjoy the continuous striving to perfect something. I’m not like that at all, I just like to pick a low hanging fruit, and then on to the next one.
I made a “good enough” approach to BoE flipping, and then I just started doing it on 9 different realms whenever I can.
Optimization requires time
There is also an objective reason to stop your min/maxing at a certain point. Min/maxing requires you to track your performance on a detailed enough level that you always know what is the most optimal way to spend your time. Tracking and analyzing what you have done requires time. Past a certain point you would probably be better off just executing on slightly less efficient strategies rather than trying to find the absolute perfect one.
Know thyself
Ultimately it all comes down to who you are. How do you enjoy the playing the game?
Do you enjoy continuously tracking everything and using so you always know you are on track? Then go ahead, min/max to your heart’s content.
If you are lazy, like me, and just want to get in, get done and get gold, then just find some low effort markets you can effectively execute in.
Either way it is a long term game, so make sure you stick with it!