In my view the core problem is the lack of proper sum types. Using product types to represent results seems fundamentally wrong; the vast majority of procedures

In my view the core problem is the lack of proper sum types. Using product types to represent results seems fundamentally wrong; the vast majority of procedures only have 2 possible outcomes -- they fail or they don't -- 2 of the 4 outcomes that the type system permits are (almost always) nonsensical. I don't see a good reason to design a modern language in this way, it feels less like an intentional design choice and more like a hack.