This is slightly OT, but, I have to ask... why does greediness get the blame for so much? I am not an expert in RE engines, but I am pretty sure that "leftmostness" trumps greediness nearly every time. Correct? ie: "leftmost" match always succeeds before the "best" match, or "biggest" match.

\S+'s greediness doesn't really figure into this problem in the very least, as far as I can tell. Greediness is right-acting, not omni-directional.