go out and buy another gig or two of ram for a few bucks. seriously...its hard enough to find professionals to build software without getting bogged down with mallocs and leaks for god's sake. when java first hit in the 90's, prettty much the #1 feature was its automated garbage collection...why now are we debating this now?
The reason I'm arguing it's important is that there are still a lot of applications out there where dropping in another gigabyte of RAM isn't an option. Embedded doesn't always have gigabytes of memory; sometimes your cost constraints put you in a 25 cent processor with kilobytes of memory. I'm coding 8-bit processors because I write code for embedded application which are cost sensitive. I'll use a 32-bit processor if the design specs show it's called for.
A penny saved is a penny to squander. -- Ambrose Bierce