in reply to Re^3: Reference is experimental
in thread Reference is experimental

However, it's worth noting that it was mentioned that newly-created postderef lessened the need for these.

It would be interesting to ask whether there was ever any real requirement for either?

Or was this just a flight of fancy by some dev overeager to leave fingerprints on the codebase, approved on the basis of who was proposing it, rather than a proper technical assessment of the need for, utility of, and "fit" of the proposal.