My point is that arguing about what is a variable is moot in the presence of compiler optimizations. You might think that taking and address makes a difference

My point is that arguing about what is a variable is moot in the presence of compiler optimizations. You might think that taking and address makes a difference but if the compiler decides that it can elide it will (for example if the taken address never leaves the local scope and the variable is purely local then the compiler might be able to optimize it away). Regarding ugliness… Idk beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I happen to like constexpr ;)