Hey, didn't see this response, thankfully someone clapped drawing my attention.

I've always felt that null or undefined should be reserved for saying there is no data or value. If you are using it AS a value, then the problem is in the generating logic or data stream, not the processing side of things.

Sounds more like bad planning and bad/broken data than legitimate well planned coding.

Sadly, that's FAR too common these days with people promoting bad practices that would have gotten you fired 20 years ago as the latest and greatest hot trend. When what we really get is a hot WET mess.