The `match` statement is the most obvious - its motivation [0] is "pattern matching syntax is found in many languages" and "[it will] enable Python users to write cleaner, more readable code for [`if isinstance`]". But `if isinstance` is bad Python! [1]

`match` also breaks fundamental Python principles [2] and interacts badly with the language's lack of block scope:

    >>> a, b = 1, 2
    >>> match a:
    ...     case b: pass
    ...
    >>> a, b
    (1, 1)

Not to mention that it also required large changes to the CPython implementation, including an entirely new parser(!) - which means other implementations may never support it [3]. Clearly `match` doesn't fill a gap in a coherent design for Python. It seems to have been added due to a combination of FOMO and/or resume-driven development.

Another example is async-await - while the concept is fine (although I think stackful coroutines are a better fit for a high-level language), the syntax is just copy-pasted from other languages [4]. There seems to have been little thought as to why C# etc chose that syntax (to allow `async` and `await` to be contextual keywords), nor how `async def` contradicts existing Python syntax for generators.

[0] https://peps.python.org/pep-0635/#motivation

[1] http://canonical.org/%7Ekragen/isinstance/

[2] https://x.com/brandon_rhodes/status/1360226108399099909

[3] https://github.com/micropython/micropython/issues/8507

[4] https://peps.python.org/pep-0492/#why-async-and-await-keywor...