Why are nested weights bad for performance? Alternatives?

Update: As we know the percent support library is deprecated from API level 26. ConstraintLayout is the new way to achieve the same flat xml structure.

Updated Github Project

Updated Samples:

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout 
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/fifty_thirty"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:background="#ffff8800"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:text="@string/fifty_fifty_text"
        android:textColor="@android:color/white"
        app:layout_constraintHeight_default="percent"
        app:layout_constraintHeight_percent="0.5"
        android:textSize="25sp"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintWidth_default="percent"
        app:layout_constraintWidth_percent="0.5" />

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:background="#ffff5566"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:text="@string/fifty_fifty_text"
        android:textColor="@android:color/white"
        android:textSize="25sp"
        app:layout_constraintHeight_default="percent"
        app:layout_constraintHeight_percent="0.5"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf="@id/fifty_thirty"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@id/fifty_thirty"
        app:layout_constraintWidth_default="percent"
        app:layout_constraintWidth_percent="0.5" />

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

Update: Great news android percent support library solves our problem of performance and nested messy weighted LinearLayout

compile 'com.android.support:percent:23.0.0'

Demo HERE

Consider this simple layout to demonstrate the same.

<android.support.percent.PercentRelativeLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/fifty_huntv"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:background="#ff7acfff"
        android:text="20% - 50%"
        android:textColor="@android:color/white"
        app:layout_heightPercent="20%"
        app:layout_widthPercent="50%" />
    <TextView
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:layout_toRightOf="@id/fifty_huntv"
        android:background="#ffff5566"
        android:text="80%-50%"
        app:layout_heightPercent="80%"
        app:layout_widthPercent="50%"
        />

</android.support.percent.PercentRelativeLayout>

Avoided performance degrader nested LinearLayout with weights.Really awesome!!!.

Nested weights are bad for performance because:

Layout weights require a widget to be measured twice. When a LinearLayout with non-zero weights is nested inside another LinearLayout with non-zero weights, then the number of measurements increase exponentially.

It's better to use RelativeLayouts and adjust your view according to the places of other views without using specific dpi values.