It used to be more consistent.  The difference might be whether it consumes the token on lookahead, around old line 1850.

I was too lazy to try it the other day, but I'll make time.

The `_*` hint where you say `I really don't want to` is, I think, partly due to historical regex-style, and maybe for a newbie who hasn't assimilated `_*`.

I like the suggestion to emit the generic message with the optional hint in parens.

I really wish there were `-Xnoob` for emitting a few lines of tutorial.