Yes, interpretation has strengths, but those go away when you try to do 'optimized' interpretation. Interpretation optimizations, particularly in register forms, are not only difficult to implement but non-portable (they'll work everywhere, but all architectures are not created equal).
If you care about performance, going the compiler route is the only way. In addition, JITCs do not need an interpreter as well, it's just often done that way to offset the cost of compilation for routines that aren't hit often.
concerning your second point: you're absolutely right, there are a couple of direct compilation systems (without interpreters). for example, the cacao jvm for dec alphas (afaik) used to be a jit compiler without an interpreter (but they added one afterwards)
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Yes, interpretation has strengths, but those go away when you try to do 'optimized' interpretation. Interpretation optimizations, particularly in register forms, are not only difficult to implement but non-portable (they'll work everywhere, but all architectures are not created equal).
If you care about performance, going the compiler route is the only way. In addition, JITCs do not need an interpreter as well, it's just often done that way to offset the cost of compilation for routines that aren't hit often.
concerning your second point: you're absolutely right, there are a couple of direct compilation systems (without interpreters). for example, the cacao jvm for dec alphas (afaik) used to be a jit compiler without an interpreter (but they added one afterwards)