I read the first as the concat symbol applied to an iterable leads to string concated by the concat symbol.
I read the second as an iterable broken by split symbol leads to an iterable of the chunks.
In the first case, I want to do something to a list: join it into a string. So, clearly, I need a list method? But no, I need to engage in some form of indirection; for some reason, I need to reach for a string method. Even if there is no string that I want to use as a delimiter. In that case, I need to use a string method on an empty string.
OK, I’ll play along. Now I want to take the string and split it into an array. Now that I’ve been educated, I know better than to try the sensible thing. Pre-enlightenment, I would have reached for a method applied to the thing that I wanted to transform. But now I know I should think backwards, and use a method applied to the delimiter. OOPs.
julia> join([1 2 3], ", ")
"1, 2, 3"
julia> split("1, 2, 3", ", ")
3-element Vector{SubString{String}}:
"1"
"2"
"3"
You'll have to decide if you find that convincing. I understand your point and kind of wish I hadn't read this thread because I'm more torn than before.