The error handling is explicit only in a limited way. As the author points out, you have to explicitly propagate an error condition, but you don't have to explicitly not-propagate it. Exceptions are reversed in this way: propagation is implicit, and not-propagating is explicit. I would prefer that handling is fully explicit in all cases, and not depend on supplemental linting or sheer discipline. It's a bit incongruous that golang compiler is so fussy about unused imports, but has nothing to say about silently ignored errors.

I also find that stack traces are generally more useful than plain wrapped errors. I want to know the code path in most cases where I am looking at an error.

More generally, it's disappointing that golang has so many idiosyncrasies given its philosophy of straightforwardness. I struggle to think of any useful, general purpose language that has fared better, though.