No, the purpose wasn't to be faster than a pointer. You can't even necessarily use a pointer where you can use std::optional; the value of std::optional is embe

No, the purpose wasn't to be faster than a pointer. You can't even necessarily use a pointer where you can use std::optional; the value of std::optional is embedded in itself. One purpose would be type safety (and things revolving around that). Another would be to let you pass around an optional object just as easily as the underlying object. As to whether it's a good idea to have it at all, I'm not particularly fond of it personally either. I don't have specific issues with its dereferencing safety though. Don't confuse type safety with memory safety though. Type safety != memory safety != thread safety != ...