> I can always write code like `if(ENOSYS) { return Ok("*") } instead of returning Err(ENOSYS)
You can do that but it's going to feel bad to write that and it's going to stand out like a sore thumb to anyone who reads it. But "errno" is just ambient state that's completely invisible unless you happen to have the manpage fresh in your memory.
They had to write
after seeing that other implementations use different sentries like "*0" and that the spec says they MUST return NULL. That must have felt bad too.