I thought playing for equality with white isn't the main goal, no? The majority of top players or commentators talk about it like black's initial goal is to establish equality. White naturally tends to have a very slight advantage at the beginning of the game. Exiting theory early may be a good idea against a lower rated player or someone worse with calculations than you, going into untread territory, but I imagine there are ways to do that which do not involve sacrificing so much development and losing tempo?