Pattern matching isn't just about having a switch statement, but about what you can do in the 'case' part of the statement: match complex data and extract variables.

A good example of how pattern matching simplifies code is given in the 'Patterns and Functional Style' section of PEP 635 [1]:

    match json_pet:
        case {"type": "cat", "name": name, "pattern": pattern}:
            return Cat(name, pattern)
        case {"type": "dog", "name": name, "breed": breed}:
            return Dog(name, breed)
        case _:
            raise ValueError("Not a suitable pet")

The equivalent if statement would be kind of gross:

    if 'type' in json_pet:
        if json_pet['type'] == 'cat' and 'pattern' in json_cat:
            return Cat(json_pet['name'], json_pet['pattern'])
        elif json_pet['type'] == 'dog' and 'breed' in json_pet:
            return Dog(json_pet['name'], json_pet['breed'])
    raise ValueError("Not a suitable pet")

One can imagine extending that to parse 6 or 7 types of messages.

Another example is matching tuples or sequences: the equivalent if statement requires checking the length of the sequence, then extracting the variables, etc. The 'case' statement does all of that in one line.

In other words, as one of my university professors would put it: 'there's nothing that can't be written using plain ifs, adds and jumps, but that doesn't mean we all want to write in assembly with just 3 instructions'.

[1] https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0635/#patterns-and-funct...