While we're thinking outside the bun, let's consider not just the web server, but the whole stack. That includes load balancers, message queues, data stores, etc and of course all the network gear that we often forget about. A fancy web server benchmark isn't going to tell you squat about how all this stuff will perform together for you because there are too many variables.

The closest we can get to useful metrics is looking at large-scale sites that handle high load in the so-called "real-world". These usually take the form of experiential stories which, incidentally, is how most knowledge is shared.

The solution is more stories, not a fancier benchmark.