> it didn't have either of these structural problems.
Disagree...the volume/importance of grievances should be directly proportional to willingness to abandon. That a few examples can be provided isn't an indictment of the ecosystem anymore than it would be if I did the same to those the OP found favorable.
He chose to go deep instead of broad. That was an editorial tradeoff to keep the length this side of an encyclopedia, and I don't think it's fair to criticize him for it unless you're also going to argue that the generalization he asked us to take on faith doesn't hold -- in other words, that the example he gave in which a simplifying API decision backfired is atypical.
I haven't used much Go, but the bit that I've played with gave me the distinct impression that "opinionated simplification" wasn't just common, it was the defining quality of the entire language, which would strongly suggest that OP's complaint would easily generalize to a hundred other APIs. Is that not the case?
I suspect if issues of such importance are enough to make you want off the "wild ride", you will not find a ride suitable.