[zverok]

Well, first of all, I was one of those who fought for method references as first-class objects for a few years (the story is told in my blog before[1]), and "let Ruby eventually become more functional" was one of my main arguments!

That being said, there are a few problems on this road, that make it less probable to be followed. First, as Ruby doesn't have first-class Method objects (e.g. object corresponding to `File.method(:read)` doesn't exist until you call `method(:name)` explicitly), this style being popularized will either bring a lot of subtle performance problems, or will require redesign of Ruby's internals.

Second, if we'll make an example _a bit_ more complicated, say:

  ENV.fetch('CONFIG_PATH')
    .then { File.read(_1, encoding: 'KOI8-U')
    .then { JSON.parse(_1, symbolize_names: true) }
    .dig('metadata', 'created_at')
    .then { Time.new(_1, in: CURRENT_TIMEZONE) }

...it would be impossible to rewrite with `method`, until currying would be signficantly improved (currently it can only be applied to first arguments, not tail ones, and even then looks horrible). So it is not impossible, and it is a turn of the language I'd like to see in the future, but it is not as straightforward as I once imagined.

1: https://zverok.space/blog/2022-01-13-it-evolves.html#taking-...