[Toutouxc]

Isn't the main issue that Ruby simply doesn't have functions? Ruby is pure OOP, and there is no way to define a method without the implicit 'self' argument. Maybe the reasoning was that methods themselves aren't really meant to be passed around. Because in today's idiomatic Ruby, they mostly aren't -- the late binding behavior of 'send' feels much more Rubyish.

[indeyets]

Exactly. And Ruby methods are not even "functions with self" they are message-handlers. Like in Smalltalk or Objective-C.

Different heritage