Yeah Containers like Option<T> and Result<T> not having a proper subtyping relation to T is major flaw. I mean you are basically giving a stronger guarantee if you are returning T instead of T or an Error, yet you break every callsite.
I have been thinking about this in terms of a data oriented programming language like clojure, but having types/schemas. If you use Union Types for something like getting a value out of a map for a specific key, then if you knew the schema of a specific map you could reduce the return type from {T, Error} to just the type of the value T that you know is there.
Basically a sufficiently smart compiler with the necessary information could make you not have to deal with errors at all in certain cases.
With Result/Option/Maybe this would not be possible. It would always infect the entire callstack and you would always have to deal with it.
I have been thinking about this in terms of a data oriented programming language like clojure, but having types/schemas. If you use Union Types for something like getting a value out of a map for a specific key, then if you knew the schema of a specific map you could reduce the return type from {T, Error} to just the type of the value T that you know is there.
Basically a sufficiently smart compiler with the necessary information could make you not have to deal with errors at all in certain cases. With Result/Option/Maybe this would not be possible. It would always infect the entire callstack and you would always have to deal with it.