Stop Defaulting to Cascades: Why Router-First Wins for Interactive Apps (LLM routing vs cascading) The question of "LLM routing vs cascading" is not just academic—it's an operational decision that changes latency profiles, cost predictability, and user experience for interactive apps. In practice, a conservative router + semantic cache + calibrated gates will usually outperform a "cheap-first" cascade for latency-sensitive, user-facing systems. This article explains why, gives a practical...