From the Department of Redundancy Department

Dobbs Code Talk - Redundancy in Programming Languages discusses why sometimes redundancy is a good thing. Like in accounting, or computer programming. (Or HDL programming.)

Key conclusion:

Many programming language designers mistakenly assume that removing redundancy makes programmers more productive. ...

Well-designed redundancy can, however, dramatically improve productivity with its ability to uncover errors early in the development process. ...

The trick, of course, is figuring out which redundancies are good, and which aren't.