You just explained why it's done this way. Because 'defer' is not scoped by block you can now use your standard constructs with blocks — if, for-loops, etc. — t

You just explained why it's done this way. Because 'defer' is not scoped by block you can now use your standard constructs with blocks — if, for-loops, etc. — to initiate the defers. If your function opens a N files based on some parameter N, it can still use a loop and defer each's close dynamically. Sure there's ways to work around it like putting another loop in a single defer but it's not completely braindead this way. It's much more annoying to need to add syntax to "expand" the scope of a deferred beyond a codeblock when you need it than to just wrap some code in a function when you need it.