Dereferenceable Zero

H4n_uL:

New-edition's Option<@T> is always 1-word-wide and Option<&T> is always 2-words-wide.

You need to stop trying to jump all the way to "my use case is centered", rather than taking incremental steps.

We're reasonably likely to add a function or two to help here.

We might consider adding a library type, if there's enough demand and it becomes popular in the ecosystem.

We're extremely unlikely to add a new language built-in type.

There's no chance of that type ending up with a sigil; those are rare and valuable and get used for pervasive language features.

The idea of this feature being seen as so pervasive that it should become the default type of reference? Never. Zero chance. You really, really need to step back and approach this with a mindset of "how can my niche use case be served a bit better", rather than your current approach of "why does Rust not pervasively revolve around my use case".