It's such a weird question.
Yes, "dot operator can throw a NRE" is of course a big mistake. A billion-dollar mistake, you can even say.
No, I'm not asking if "dot operator can throw a NRE" is a mistake; I'm asking if the dot operator, the ability to access members at all, is a mistake.
No, I'm not asking if "dot operator can throw a NRE" is a mistake; I'm asking if the dot operator, the ability to access members at all, is a mistake.