The problem is that AAA studios have entire teams dedicated to optimization, and that makes it harder to brag about, I bet their goals are something like "Implement X tech" instead of "gain average 5FPS on all hardware", which is why I understand why some indie developers do it. I think optimization should be expected as a natural part of development, and when we ask for it, it should be understood as not needing brand new hardware to run something that isn't that impressive.
Discussion
Ya it should be expected, and it's bad that it isn't something that comes by default.
I think for indies, rather than bragging, they should make fun of other indies or AAA for having bad optimization, shaming each other, and damaging each other to hopefully add to fire up their asses to release a performat game.