Gribouille is not ggplot2, or other. Syntax is different. Superficial keyword similarity is (usually) a false friend. Reusing a keyword might be useful, but keeping an unnecessary construction is (in my view), a cargo cult.
Typst itself breaks with a lot of LaTeX stuff, and it is good that it does not pretend it is LaTeX-with-Rust, but has a fresh look.
https://m.canouil.dev/gribouille/reference/core/aes.html
I already drifted apart from ggplot2/plotnine in many ways, I don't mind as long as it's not confusing.
I've opened a GitHub issue about this question (no ansers at this point): https://github.com/mcanouil/gribouille/issues/143
I didn't know about these Typst restrictions. Silent fails are the worst, so if a constructor is necessary to prevent these, good it is there.
Thanks for explaining! (And for developing gribouille in the first place!)
In any case, I'm curious whether aes is necessary, or whether it would suffice to drop this function entirely and just use keys in the mapping (similarly for labs). Or, more broadly, whether using patterns from other implementations of the Grammar of Graphics is a conscious decision, or some sort of legacy baggage.