[anyonecancode]

I think the early return pattern makes the most sense when it's less "logic" and more "validation." Eg in the example, the code isn't really _doing_ anything if there's no user or no first name, it's running a bunch of checks _before_ trying to do anything. Those validation checks are implemented with if/early return, but the actual pattern is more "validate first and only proceed if everything checks out."

In typed languages a lot of those checks get implemented in your actual types, but you still might have various business logic/data integrity checks you might implement in early return.

Seen in this light, this pattern's really not so much in tension with the idea of having a single return variable. It's just a way to implement the idea that invalid states should not be possible, which you accomplish in your type system when and if possible, and fall back to runtime checks for the gaps where it's not.