Problem is, tail recursion isn't always particularly elegant and requires a lot more effort when pandering to the compiler (Exhibit A: the factorial example, n

Problem is, tail recursion isn't always particularly elegant and requires a lot more effort when pandering to the compiler (Exhibit A: the factorial example, naive recursive vs tail recursive) that the result is usually harder to follow than one with an explicit stack or queue. Also, some data structures like trees are explicitly stateful no matter how you transform it so they can't be optimized into a tail recursive form at all; I am not sure though in this case if it's clearer to manage the stack directly or to hope that the compiler would optimize it into the most efficient form.