Because null checks are an extremely common operation to have to do, and this let's your code read as just the business logic without these constant null checks breaking things up by multiple lines.

It's only not readable to you because you're not used to them. That's the case for literally every bit of new programming syntax that comes along.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Exactly. Not adding efficient things because "they will be new" is just silly. We adapt, as programmers. We learned the language a first time, so we know what it means to learn things. Just like in English when you come upon a word you don't understand, either you understand it by its context, or you just look it up. Simple as that.