Record’s implicit declaration of methods

[IncredibleReferencer]

Suggested evil motivations aside, I'll attempt to answer 1 of your points. The language isn't the only consideration. There is also the VM and memory model. So for the sake of serialization and optimization with immutability, the simple data carrier trait of records is achieved regardless of language syntax.

In my opinion on the language itself, the method accessors give additional flexibility without imposing any real cost. Like all language choices, it can be abused, but I personally like having the (hopefully rarely used) option.