Yes, every now and then. The example in this post is an edge case. And even if it wasn't, the walrus operator saved a grand total of three (3!) keystrokes/characters per conditional in the example. "saves a lot of lines" is hyperbole. If the goal of this was saving programmer time or reducing the amount of code, the walrus operator should have been one of the absolute last things in Python to change.

Even just within this HN thread, even the staunchest proponents of this change are admitting that it is only going to be used sparingly, and at best saves a handful of lines of code per project.

If you're seriously telling me that saving a measly three keystrokes is more important to you than maintaining the pythonic philosophy that has made Python successful for decades, I can say nothing else other than that I strongly encourage you to reevaluate your priorities.

edit: I actually did the math wrong. It's only two (2!) keystrokes saved per conditional.