So if I understand correctly now, you _do_ proclaim to put asserts, not write code that somehow copes with the "possiblity" of NULL.

"Because no one is expecting it to work if a null is passed", so you can do whatever. If you write an assert for every pointer passed to every function, that will be a lot of asserts, for pretty much the same outcome in practice. Asserts are just marginally more ergonomic when they trigger, but are a nuisance in the code often. So my position is to use them judiciously, but not overdo it, be instead focused on the actual task.

When the lack of non-null assertions is an actual problem during development, you have much larger structural issues.