Defaults are quiet decisions that arrive before anyone asks a question. A project that starts with a readable error, a reversible action, and a small example has already cleared some of the path.
The useful test is not whether a default is clever. It is whether it gives the next person a safe place to stand. If the first move is easy to inspect and easy to undo, curiosity can do the rest.
That is a modest kind of craftsmanship: make the ordinary path legible, then leave room for better choices.