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(Author here) Yes, that's correct. It's an algebraic effect elevated to a dedicated language feature.

The benefit is that it is simpler than having full-blown algebraic effects, both to learn and to actually use. Probably not for you, but for most people, and definitely for the non-professional developer kind.

Agreed, it's pretty clearly a subset of algebraic effects. In fact, I'm fairly certain that I've seen examples similar to OP as the hello world of algebraic effects a few times.

Implementation simplicity?

Could you shed some light on the degree to which it's simpler? I've heard that algebraic effects are complex but I don't have much of a feel for why that is.