I think it would be helpful to clearly distinguish between PL simplification (e.g., "if let Some(x) = x, x == 42 {}") and convenience-driven PL expansion (e.g., "let @discardable lhs = rhs ?? 0;"). In case of the former, I'm with you. In case of the latter, I'm not. Rust likely isn't meant to be a tool that is easy to learn at all costs (since the borrow checker does exist, after all). Rust is, IMvHO, supposed to be like vi: hard to learn and easy to use :).