Well, Python will let certain statements continue over multiple lines as well, e.g.

  someFunction(parameterOne,
               parameterTwo)

I think maybe the difference is that Python has always treated newlines the way it does now. JavaScript, on the other hand, has developed idioms based on the semicolon model. So has the rug has been snatched out from underneith its users by suddenly making them optional? Does the change make a lot of useful idioms harder to implement?