The chief problem with optimization is as the more clear your understanding of which options are the most powerful the more you'll trend towards them creating a stagnation.
That's precisely the problem I run into when crafting a new build. If it's a caster it typically uses similar items, similar spells, etc, with the only salient differences being the class abilities, which occasionally drive the build in a direction that's somewhat fresh, but is seldom enough to make it new or interesting.
Though in terms of efficiency and usability I would pit some of my builds (such as my SCM build) against the best currently known builds for that archetype and it would come out on top.