This construct gives you most of the power of C++ RAII without the overhead. But it leaves out the most useful part: in C++ releasing the resources is complete

This construct gives you most of the power of C++ RAII without the overhead. But it leaves out the most useful part: in C++ releasing the resources is completely implicit: { std::ifstream in(fn); // Do something with 'in' } // Released while with Go defer, you have to call explicitly for the method that you want to call. If you forget this, you still have a resource leak. Sure, it's an improvement over languages where you have to cover every possible scope exit, but it definitely doesn't give you 'most of the power' of C++ RAII.