"Simple" delay chain mystery

The compiler is not a magician, however; it must separately calculate the "intermediate" combinatorial results if the design brings those results out to pins. The only way I can see the compiler getting around a chain (and the associated delay) is the parallel solution that gee showed. I don't have the expertise (or time at the moment to acquire it) to inspect the compiler's two approaches at the gate level, but I would bet that the optimized approach has parallel paths that use redundant gate structures. I don't see how else it can achieve simultaneous outputs. Once again, it's a tradeoff between area and speed. Perhaps, I'm missing something, though!