[frou_dh]

But when it's the exact same syntax to call a statically-dispatched method on the current object as it is to send a message to something else, it breaks the illusion of messaging being meaningfully different while writing code.

Whether some actual bonafide communication ends up being done one level removed (e.g. inside such a private method, or chained off of a field access) is immaterial because when appraising the conceptual integrity we cannot continue after seeing a fail.

(edited)