For 98% of all software, 'elegance of maintenance' is vastly more important than your #1. Most software doesn't need the absolute fastest hand tuned implementation, it needs an implementation that the poor schlub who inherits it in 15 years can understand.

Now I'm not agreeing about the particular indexing argument put forth by edw519, I think zero indexes lead to cleaner code whenever you have to do math with them, but unless you can make an honest case for maximum performance, I have to disagree with your assertion about elegance.