You're right, this can be done without changing the Python syntax and in fact there was a proposal (with implementation) on the table for a long time. But event

You're right, this can be done without changing the Python syntax and in fact there was a proposal (with implementation) on the table for a long time. But eventually it was deemed to be too error prone and the more explicit approach was chosen. Python often resolved a tradeoff in favor of explicitness, and IMHO this ended up being a good decision.