[yencabulator]

> I'd like to see Go require return values be dealt with or explicitly ignored.

Ever use the return value from fmt.Println?

[throwaway894345]

Not usually, but the correct answer would be to either explicitly ignore the unused return values or use APIs that don't return values you don't care about.

[preseinger]

    _ = fmt.Println("ok") // 1
    fmt.Println("ok")     // 2

1 is unambiguously worse than 2.