I've seen both Optional<?> return null (inexperienced dev) and somebody arguing we should defensively check for null Optionals as well (experienced dev). What

I've seen both Optional<?> return null (inexperienced dev) and somebody arguing we should defensively check for null Optionals as well (experienced dev). What you're arguing is a false equivalence. In practice null safety isn't a problem when developing in Kotlin while it is a big problem in Java.