[notacoward]

I don't care what people "would do" in C++ today, because my whole point is that C++ started down this bad path years ago. I'm not criticizing people for writing such code. I'm criticizing the standards-makers who made such hacks (seem) necessary. It's not about having put thought into it either. Lots of people had put plenty of thought into it when the various versions of C++ were standardized. This is about making the right choices from among the alternatives available, and that was not done.

Demanding a solution that is both applicable to C++ as it exists today and yet not in C++ today is demanding two contradictory things. It's demanding that the same thing both did and didn't happen. It's dishonest. You want a suggestion? Adopt "defer" for the next version of C++. It's the best we can do. We can't change the past, but we can learn from it if we don't get stuck trying to excuse past mistakes and attack those who point them out.