For performance reasons as well. An overloaded == operator turns a simple ceq into a function call, involving a new stack frame push and pop. If you do this on

For performance reasons as well. An overloaded == operator turns a simple ceq into a function call, involving a new stack frame push and pop. If you do this on a hot path, switching to (is null) and (is object) can provide a significant speedup and will likely reduce gc pressure.