在Go中使用指针有什么意义？

Question

I know that pointers in Go allow mutation of a function's arguments, but wouldn't it have been simpler if they adopted just references (with appropriate const or mutable qualifiers). Now we have pointers and for some built-in types like maps and channels implicit pass by reference.

Am I missing something or are pointers in Go just an unnecessary complication?

Answer 1

References cannot be reassigned, while pointers can. This alone makes pointers useful in many situations where references could not be used.