Resource scoping is important feature. Context managers (in python) are literally bread and butter for everyday tasks.
It's awkward not because of Symbol, it introduces new syntax tied to existing implicit scopes. It's kinda fragile based on Go experience. Explicit scoping is a way more predictable.
You're about a decade late to the party?
That is the entire point of symbols and "well known symbols", and why they were introduced back in ES6.