[frollogaston]

What reliance did you have in mind? All sorts of calls in Python can release the GIL, so you already need locking, and there are race conditions just like in most languages. It's not like JS where your code is guaranteed to run in order until you "await" something.

I don't fully understand the challenge with removing it, but thought it was something about C extensions, not something most users have to directly worry about.