Do people really think optimization is a dirty word? (Or did you just mean the British spelling of it? ;-)

Usually, I see people railing against premature optimization -- or about optimization not backed with benchmarking. Much is done in the name of optimization because it sounds so reasonable -- that doesn't make optimization itself unreasonable or undesireable -- but it rightfully brings scrutiny on justifications based solely on optimization. It's important to differentiate between the two.

(Substitute "liberty" or "equality" or "security" or the moral good of your choice for parallel arguments outside of programming.)