I wouldn't say that reference counting systems are a "software engineering best practice". Mainly because the engineer is not consciously doing anything themsel

I wouldn't say that reference counting systems are a "software engineering best practice". Mainly because the engineer is not consciously doing anything themselves. It's not like a builder pattern or something. They are just doing what the compiler wants them to do. In fact, there are many ways to get around the compiler errors that feel like an anti-pattern (like using `.clone()` everywhere). There are other ways to write safe code than just reference counting systems. And arguably, a software engineer would learn more best practices by managing memory more directly.