It was “recently” introduced in Python 3.8. See sibling for link to issue tracker
In this case, it would seem it took a little reinvention in order to let the wheel's discovery be known.
Not used it, but ic seems to be compatible back to python 2.7 so not really comparable. I can't use the builtin thing in my python code because the host software for my plugins is running python 3.6 embedded and only recently upgraded from 3.3 in the latest release so if I want to maintain backwards compatibility I can never use the new python builtin. I expect lots of other people are in the same position.
Yeah you're right. I hadn't realized it was so new till a little later... Well, it's good that IC has a stronger use case surface area for those who want it.