Am I the only one who thinks adding more syntax is a bad thing?
It would be one thing to just have a new symbol that was a drop-in alternative to what works now. But in this case you have a _sometimes_ alternative, so you need to remember a new rule, if only to be able read other people's code. That cognitive cost outweighs any keystroke benefit IMHO.
Are you a Ruby dev?
If so, is your concern based on the impact this has on you personally, or is it based on concern for some mythical other dev who might have problems with the additional "cognitive cost"?
I've been a developing in Ruby now for about 4 years, I think this (the new syntax) is absolutely the right thing to do