"_" and "*" being synonymous is redundant and confusing

Generally speaking, if there are 2 ways to achieve the same thing, then it’s confusing to learn. As a novice you don’t know if it’s really the same, if one is different from the other in some way or which you should use for what. Once someone tells you it’s actually the same, it’s not confusing anymore, but you can’t intuitively decide that for yourself (necessarily).

In this case though I’m with you in that 1) it’s already too late and 2) it’s not confusing because these notations have been around forever and they both communicate well what they do. If rewinding time were possible, I’d definitely remove one, though.