I have a few instances where I just need any search result that matched some criteria, and I know there might be multiple results. If I find a single result that I am looking for, then I can just return false. The additional iterations would just be wasting time. Designing an API to meet everyone'se needs and expectations is hard. There are bound to be people who want things one way, and other who want almost the exact opposite. I once heard a US legislator talking about a bill that was passed. He said he knew it was a good one, because no one was completely happy with it, which showed it was full of compromises. API's are also full of compromises.