As Linux-Mag points out (Gentoo Optimizations Benchmarked) using gcc optimizations for “omg, teh speed” is not all that practical. Sure, I’ll add some compiler flags here and there as long as I am compiling everything anyway but I don’t consider that a feature of Gentoo Linux.

I actually prefer Gentoo for the package management and customization via USE flags (even with the headaches that they cause sometimes).