I understand this point and it's true that there would be some elegance if both statements were equivalent but I see greater utility without that equivalence:

I understand this point and it's true that there would be some elegance if both statements were equivalent but I see greater utility without that equivalence: Rather than a redundancy and sugar on + and = ("I do not want to type the left side twice"), it is a distinction I am making to the compiler ("I do not want you to evaluate the left side twice").