I agree on over-use of optionals. I disagree with the code is thus doing too much, however. At least in this specific and some other cases, the method shown t

I agree on over-use of optionals. I disagree with the code is thus doing too much, however. At least in this specific and some other cases, the method shown there is a wrapper to do a major task of converting data formats from one form to another. These optional, well-documented arguments show the defaults used, and are modifiable in, as you said, specific use-cases.