How could you possibly make an assertion like this without knowing why they made said choice[1]? Per the article, they didn't do it for fun, or to avoid exceptions (as you point out, more like defer exceptions). FTA:

> As I understand it, it’s because Pony forces you to handle all partial functions. Defining 1/0 is a “lesser evil” consequence of that.

Do you know enough about Pony's language design and decision process to support your claim that this decision (and all its second-order consequences) is hurting users far more than helping them?

[1] On the off chance that you are familiar with the tradeoffs Pony made and do know what you're talking about: care to clarify?