In my opinion, the benefits of properly written assembly code on an old Mac is worth making yourself interested! Seriously, it is THAT much faster! And on a slow Mac, speed is of critical importance. Plus, you can lower the RAM requirements too. Why do you think System 6 is so much faster than 7? No, it's not simply "the bloat of 7" that is the cause. System 6 is mostly assembly code, well written and compacted!
Let the assembly code roll off those programming fingers!