Actually though, just imagine if each FETCH were tied to something compute intensive.

I can certainly imagine it - however I would still see it as a sign of something being seriously wrong.

Creating a system where a computationally intensive operation became hidden behind an operation that is traditionally computationally cheap would be a design mistake in my book. It confounds expectations.

The reduction in redundancy is a fair point, and I wouldn't want to argue with that being a fan of once and only once myself.