The point is that returning an Optional gives you nothing above returning a null - in fact it increases complexity and makes calling code more error-prone for n

The point is that returning an Optional gives you nothing above returning a null - in fact it increases complexity and makes calling code more error-prone for no gain. If your contract says you return a Foo, you could be returning a null. If you change that to Optional<Foo> you could still be returning a null. It's not what Optionals are for. They are just widely misunderstood and abused.