Adding syntax to the CPython interpreter

For all of the syntax features Python has been adding over the years, this would be a nice enhancement: making the "else None" optional in the ternary if-expression. E.g.,

    spam = eggs if bar
    # vs
    spam = eggs if bar else None

Do we really need more syntactic sugar? Frankly, I am still confused why Python is going for a separate syntax for if expressions instead of just making its regular ifs into expressions

There is an advantage of having this as syntax, which is a difference in semantics, which you couldn't get if this would just be an expression, namely:

    x = func1() if something else func2()

In this example, only func1() or func2() is being called, but not both.

I do not understand why

    x = if something:
          func1()
        else:
          func2()

Would not work. At least that is what I imagine when it is said "make if an expression".

This doesn't work because the if statement is a statement. Statements don't evaluate to anything in Python, so you can't assign it to x.

Hence "make it an expression"