Would it be worth pursuing the obverse strategy also, i.e. try to target the weaknesses of ASICs when designing the hash algorithm?
That approach in reality becomes: play to the weaknesses of the education of the cryptocoin developers. The sad reality is that nowadays most of the computer science graduates have no idea about logic design and architecture beyond the ubiquitous
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture from 1945. Moreover, after learning what the typical fixed-program ASIC does they are still mentally stuck in the next decade:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mealy_machine (1955)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore_machine (1956).
You really should read the other referenced threads, e.g. "ASICs mining game"
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3788591.0and the referenced external post
https://blog.sia.tech/the-state-of-cryptocurrency-mining-538004a37f9b :
The vast majority of ASIC-resistant algorithms were designed by software engineers making assumptions about the limitations of custom hardware. These assumptions tend to be incorrect.
An idea I've been fond of in the past is using a series of hash algos drawn randomly from a set, with the series also changing size randomly within a range, and a random interval between changes in the composition and size of the series (credit to Meni Rosenfeld for that idea).
If Meni really proposed this that this is just a proof that he would have flunked the basic logic design course using an FPGA as a teaching aid. It is now being actively demolished in the other thread
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3459858.0 , profitable even when paying outrageous charges for the Amazon's EC2 F1 instances (
$1.65 $0.495 per Hour) . That idea is now implemented by altcoins using x16r, x16s and similar algorithms.
But could there be other techniques to use the same strategy? Could a hash be written such that the potential for physical flaws in an attempted ASIC chip die would undermine the manufacturing yield, e.g. force chip designers to make individual chips that would need to be >30 cm2?
You were educated in humanities, didn't you? Try finding the essay from Bruce Schneier where he explains why in order to design a strong cipher one does need experience in cipher-breaking. It is not enough to simply pile-on the complexity. In my experience his argumentation was convincing to the people with education in humanities.
Edit: corrected the Amazon's pricing point for F1.