The local functions in scripts (R2016b) is a real quality of life improvement in my book. The pause during execution (R2016a) is also nice. If you want raw speed you should go back to something like R2007b or even R13 (v6.5). I don't know what caused the sharp jump in speed there, but creation of graphics objects is way faster in R13. Boot times are also excellent. That is my main reason for supporting it in my code, even if it lacks basic features like output suppression ([~,ind]=sort(A) etc).

The next big thing I'm hoping to work with is the functionSignatures.json. Now that the normal (m-file) editor supports them, I would expect more people to create them. I hope Mathworks will soon make something that will allow encoding it a comment block.

If I were to base a guess on my recollection of what various users declared in their forum questions, I'd think almost everyone ran R2020a or newer. I imagine the picture painted by the forum observations tends to over-represent users who have fresh student licenses. I also imagine the poll tends to attract people who have a reason to make it known that they don't use the latest release, even if they don't mention why.

Hi Rik, why to be surprised? The Matlab update is simply very expensive for many universities and companies because of the compatibility with other programs like dSPACE and not all of them can afford this price.