This was my first thought as well. Of course, getting rid of `=` would make the conundrum about moving Python from version 2 to version 3 seem like a quiet evening at home, but there is no practical reason why `:=` wouldn't work in all contexts as `=` (currently, a simple assignment is a syntax error).

Actually I reckon it would be an easy technical change - it’s almost a find and replace (I think)! Emotionally, I don’t think people, in general, would handle it well though. The Python 2 to 3 was mostly because it was not possible to automatically convert from the former to the latter