Part of the reason most languages obscure this is because it's a moving target.
If a language let you say, "this chunk of code here should run in 7 cycles", what happens when a new optimization finds a way to reduce that, or a new architecture comes up where that operation gets slower but lots of others get faster?
I'm not arguing against your desire, just explaining that it's not unreasonable that we're where we are now. We've gotten so used to language portability, that it's good to remember how painful it can be to lose that. It's no fun having to rewrite all your code every time a new chip comes out.
If a language let you say, "this chunk of code here should run in 7 cycles", what happens when a new optimization finds a way to reduce that, or a new architecture comes up where that operation gets slower but lots of others get faster?
I'm not arguing against your desire, just explaining that it's not unreasonable that we're where we are now. We've gotten so used to language portability, that it's good to remember how painful it can be to lose that. It's no fun having to rewrite all your code every time a new chip comes out.