I'd say it's doubtful. Clearly, stat is slow, but it's not a slouch, and the Schwartz Transform adds its own overhead. I suspect the sweet spot where the ST pulls ahead is higher than you think.

Actually, this is the core of one of the alpaca exercises, and I forget the exact numbers, but the ST turns out to be faster after only 10 or 15 files in our investigation. Stat may not be doggy, but it's still a context switch and a lot of bit wrangling. Much better to do that only once per file.

And (ahem) it's Schwartzian Transform not Schwartz Transform. If you're going to poo-poo it in favor of the more complex GRT, at least spell it right. {grin}