Transistorized Radio receivers of yesteryears used to contain this as AD & business gimmick... 6 transistor 4 band radio
Then IC packaging technology-- boast of their capability-- as years pass by, few thousand more will be adding for a unit area of the CHIP.
As rightly put, circuit optimization, speaks what minimum components one uses to get a known standard of performance-- and the stability depends on quality of design.
Many a times we enjoy critical analysis on circuits and their quality, and luckily how improve on them, from experts like Audioguru.