What would your ideal version look like? I recommend reading the C++ or Rust equivalent code in the article. I like the example because it is copied 1:1 with example code from a textbook with only some keywords changed and a Copy constraint. Any other language without a GC and with unboxed types today represents it far more verbosely to the point where the meaning becomes obscured and a typo becomes more likely to survive code review.

That's what I thought too when I first saw it. But then I actually took a moment to read it and eventually changed my mind.