At least in my experience, compilers are pretty good at pointer chasing and inlining. For example, in my code a function calls another function through a function pointer that was previously set via an exposed function. Much indirection, right? Well, clang with LTO is able to see which function's address will be assigned, and even further can determine that it's the only function whose address gets assigned to the pointer, and thus can inline the whole function into the body of the other function; across compilation units, across pointer indirection. Everything without templates/inline code.