[matt-noonan]

I'd rather have the compiler ensure that my discipline (and my team's) never slips, and to get guarantees about all possible executions instead of just those executions that have been tested.

For these reasons and others, I don't personally find run-time checks to be an adequate replacement for compile-time checks. But there is no really convincing research on the subject, and I certainly don't begrudge your preference here.