> Why remove it in the first place? It makes no sense. Presumably because a tool like 2to3 could strip it out, leaving it in is confusing, and there already ex

> Why remove it in the first place? It makes no sense. Presumably because a tool like 2to3 could strip it out, leaving it in is confusing, and there already existed a better solution for forwards compatibility (unicode literals future flag). With hindsight, the wrong call, but not completely nonsensical from what I can tell.