Advanced cache settings can still start too late.
W3 Total Cache and similar plugins can improve delivery through page cache, object cache, browser cache, minification, and CDN integration. That can be useful. But a complex cache stack does not automatically answer the earlier question: which parts of WordPress needed to run for this request in the first place?
Configuration is not causality
A cache plugin can reduce repeated work after a response has been generated. It can store, compress, combine, or distribute the result. But those actions happen after the request has already entered a performance model where WordPress execution is treated as normal.
The missing layer is not another checkbox. It is execution scope: the decision of how much PHP, plugin logic, database access, and runtime context a request actually deserves.
The earlier layer is prevention
Classic WordPress optimization often works downstream. It improves the output path. Rush - Powered by LiteCache works upstream. Its principle is simpler: do not start work that the current request does not need.
That does not make cache plugins wrong. It makes cache-only answers incomplete. A complete performance model includes both delivery optimization and workload prevention.
Read the extended note on why cache configuration remains incomplete without workload prevention.