To me it seems like it is a tiny detail that shouldn't matter one way or another. If you use it you may get a line or two shorter code, if you don't, nothing changes. Why so much fighting? Regardless if the decision was to implement it or not, it shouldn't affect anyone. This was not some paradigm shift. Personally I would simply not implement it once met with significant opposition, but I would also not be strongly opposed to it if someone wanted it so strongly. Is this seriously the greatest controversy of the python community?