Very well put.
(And if the standard library doesn't represent idiomatic use of the language, that's a red flag).
(And if the standard library doesn't represent idiomatic use of the language, that's a red flag).
If emptiness is something that is so important you add extra branchpoints inside collections to check for it, there ought to be some way of disallowing emptiness or {nil,null}ness in the language itself.
Sure, it is nice for people who use the standard library, but it points to things in the language that perhaps should have been given some more thought.