[frobisher]

Although I find my brainspace being dedicated to thinking about memory, rather than the problem at hand.

Which can be a worthwhile cost if the benefits of speed and security are needed. But I think it's certainly a cognitive cost.

[notnullorvoid]

You can use RC liberally to avoid thinking about memory though. The only memory problem to think about then is circular refs, which GC languages also don't fully avoid.