[api]

This doesn't match my experience. Go apps tend to be extremely clean and reliable. It's of course possible to write crap code in Go, but you can write crap code in any language.

The unused variable thing is mildly annoying but fits with the cleanliness philosophy. Not checking errors is very easily detected by a LINTer such as the one built into the JetBrains GoLand IDE. It highlights failure to check errors and requires that you explicitly ignore the error return with something like "_, foo = bar.baz()".

Go is spectacularly productive when used properly. It's a very nice language.