Sadly, it's not just Go. Everywhere you look, some people argue that there shouldn't be a learning cost for anything. The problem with this kind of reasoning is

Sadly, it's not just Go. Everywhere you look, some people argue that there shouldn't be a learning cost for anything. The problem with this kind of reasoning is that while it sounds nice in theory, it obviously isn't practical. It's the perfect pretext. The distinction between what's advanced knowledge vs. what's a given is totally arbitrary and is often a proxy for personal preference. Passing around functions or using them as return values is a common pattern in programming. It's also not the kind of knowledge that needs relearning either. You learn about it once and move on. If this can't be considered required knowledge for software professionals, I don't know what can.