Actually the real idiom is not "handle errors where they happen" but rather "errors are values" (https://go-proverbs.github.io/). This means that there is no one true way to handle errors, but rather that it's up to you to build error management with the same tools you have to manage data. Maybe you want to process a list of stuff in parallel and report the first error that ever happens, the same way you'd want to use the first useful data that was processed by one of those parallel processes. Maybe you want to multiplex the error to multiple error processors, for some reason. Maybe you want to signal a watchdog but continue working. I believe bubbling up the error is a consequence of the Go community still being young and not having invested a lot in proper error management (especially since you don't always need something fancy) more than it is an idiomatic way of working.