Is there any advantage whatsoever to this, as opposed to a proper monad? I’m not seeing it.
The point of monads is that they solve this exact category of problem in the simplest possible way.
The point of monads is that they solve this exact category of problem in the simplest possible way.
It tries to borrow function composition and declarative structure without requiring familiarity with full FP abstractions like monads or effect systems.
Once you commit to a real monad, you need map/flatMap, lifting, unwrapping, and rules about staying inside the context across the whole pipeline. At that point, the pipe abstraction stops being the primary mental model — the monad does.
SideEffect deliberately avoids that. It keeps the pipe interface intact and only adds a single, explicit signal: “stop here”. That’s why it’s less powerful than a monad, but also much simpler to integrate into existing pipe-based code.