You might think of that but that's not what it means in this context. ML-style pattern matching is a concise way to match nested structures and simultaneously b

You might think of that but that's not what it means in this context. ML-style pattern matching is a concise way to match nested structures and simultaneously bind variables to arbitrary subelements, which is particularly useful when combined with algebraic data types. Both are classic features of ML and derived languages since the early 70s. They're not buzzwords just because you don't know what they mean.