> I feel like a lot of problems that decorators solve could also be solved with good ol’ higher order functions.
The Stage 3 version of decorators are mostly just a syntax sugar for higher-order function composition. (As opposed to the rejected at Stage 1 version that did a lot more "reflection" and type meta-magic.) I personally was rooting for the Pipeline composition operator to win out first over decorators as what I feel a more generally useful higher-order function composition tool, but I understand given Java/C#/Python how much more people seem to love the decorator syntax.
The Stage 3 version of decorators are mostly just a syntax sugar for higher-order function composition. (As opposed to the rejected at Stage 1 version that did a lot more "reflection" and type meta-magic.) I personally was rooting for the Pipeline composition operator to win out first over decorators as what I feel a more generally useful higher-order function composition tool, but I understand given Java/C#/Python how much more people seem to love the decorator syntax.