Can I see an example? I get shifty when I see people saying things like 'factory pattern not strictly needed'. For example, there are moments where an API may need you to construct an object with a certain set of 'default properties'. I believe that rather than making developers generate 'boilerplate' there should just be some kind of 'boilerplate' factory.

So, these boilerplate factories are not strictly necessary but they make the API user's code simpler, more comprehensible, isolate responsibilities, etc.