[tshaddox]

This is pretty much the exact opposite of how I see the world with regards to data modeling. I suppose I'm a sum type radicalist. There are few non-trivial things in the world that I would model without heavy use of sum types.

[bnpxft]

Yes exactly. The real world is full of examples of a fixed set of exclusive options.

A programming language without sum types and exhaustive pattern matching in its type system is unable model this real world concept in its type system.