> When you explicitly invoke a "destructor", you do it on many code paths (and miss one or two)

Unless, of course, you do it inside a defer block.

> You don't specify where the `defer`-red "destructor" will be invoked.

Yes, actually, you do. It is patently obvious, by code inspection, where the destructor, or anything else specified in a deferred block, will be invoked. defer is a perfectly cromulent part of structured control flow, allowing for easy reasoning about when things occur without having to calculate an insane number of permutations of conditional branch instructions.