I have duplicated the Java speed tests in the C codec, and the results are here:
Type 1: elapsed time in ms: 606, per step is 3.014925 (333 steps per second)
Type 2: elapsed time in ms: 7, per step is 0.001400 (1 million steps per second
Type 1 is about 20 times faster than java, and type 2 is 500 times faster.
These numbers might change if the code was compiled with optimizations.
There is clearly a steps per second advantage to direct-compile code if your agent and environment are extremely simple.