Maybe, null and boilerplate code

The jist of the post is that "maybe is superior to null", because maybe does null lifting.

That argument, however, is a bit shallow. The first question to ask is, why not just make null behave like Maybe in the first place? That would be the sensible thing.

I could buy the argument "aren't monads neat, because they let you do lifting", but that wasn't the main point.

Null isn't inferior to maybe. It's just that many languages don't implement the "right" semantics for null(from a ux perspective).