> I feel like Rust made a wrong turn here

I think the broader context of "the leakpocalypse" involved a host of difficult decisions, all of them suboptimal in their own ways. Of all the options on the table, it's my opinion that Rust took the most pragmatic one, especially given that the proposals that sought to ensure "never-leak" behavior all felt like they had undiscovered holes of their own, leading to a lot of ceremony for no actual benefit.

  > I'm referring specifically to try!

I'm also referring to `try!`. :) It's a personal goal of mine this year to advocate a language-level replacement (and enhancement) for improved error-handling ergonomics.