It often does require more LOC, but unless the difference is extreme (and whilst it's there it isn't extreme) then I'm not sure why LOC would even be relevant.

It often does require more LOC, but unless the difference is extreme (and whilst it's there it isn't extreme) then I'm not sure why LOC would even be relevant. What matters is quality and maintainability of code, not brevity of code. I prefer the expressiveness of C# or Ruby, for example, but do a lot of stuff in Go for the clarity/obviousness of the code and the power of the tooling/libraries/ecosystem.