Just because YOU use the fast parts from whoever sells them, on a new custom PCB each time, doesn't mean everybody can do that.
If you read through this entire thread you will find no place where it (at least me) says "get a faster processor". There are legio places that state "match your processor to the peripherals" e.g. 7.xx crystal suggestion. The issue is that if you by jove have to use the 8255, do not whine that you must meet its slovenness.

I'm wiring up a circuit right now, the purpose of which is to verify a claim made by someone who has a problem they posted on this forum.
nice of you

I don't know how you could justify doing something like that with one or another of the SiLabs parts that you like if you didn't have a board that already had that particular part on it.
well I am, I guess, one of the few not using what I "happen to have" (not a good approach to mass producing)

Recommending a change in what a person wants is a touchy thing. There's a reason he wants it, and it has to do, in part, with something I know to be near and dear to your heart, namely being proven or at least accepted as being right.
There has been threads where probing have led to "I thought this was the best way to dio it my book has such a schematic in it" Usually that book has been sold as hot from the oven although it was written in 1992.

Learners come to this forum, often with legitimate queries. They deserve to have them addressed, either in the form of a "go do your own homework" or with a sufficiently detailed response. "Use different technology" is not what I'd consider kind or appropriate.
So, if someone came to you with a deignn for propelling a car with diesel oil and fertilizer would you guide them in how to do that or suggest "different technology"?

Erik