Any function that can return an object in Java can return a null. Nullability not being part of the type system I think is a design fail.

Yeah, so the null checks become annoying if you use only language fundamentals.

Java has a culture of having a layer above fundamentals.

We're past all that already. I am discussing the ergonomics of their null checking APIs, particularly in the context of pipelining (or streaming, in the Java world).

I find them quite comfortable.