"We did not know how to make use of ASN.1 without making Blink a lot more complex."
This is the same reason Protocol Buffers exist: it was more fun to write something new than to understand how to use a better but more complex technology.
I think you failed to grasp the point of that decision.
It's not about understanding the more complex technology. At least in the case of protocol buffers, they understood ASN.1. Implementing all that complexity comes with a price. If nothing else, it takes time away from other priorities.
If you look at protocol buffers, there are still ways to make the code faster, cleaner, etc., even without adding new features.
Having worked with a variety of ASN.1 libraries in a variety of ways, I can tell you that in almost every case, I found either performance bugs, functional bugs, or just missing features that literally got in my way.
