19238, "bradcray", "Deprecate 'vectorizeOnly()' in favor of 'foreach'", "2022-02-11T17:24:54Z"
The vectorizeOnly() iterator has been mentally deprecated among the team for some time now, but we hadn't officially deprecated it because we didn't really have an alternative to suggest instead (i.e., "Would we breathe new life into it over time?"). Now that we have foreach loops, it seems high time to deprecate it, and its module, referring users to foreach instead.
The one part about this plan that makes me slightly nervous is that foreach doesn't really feel completely ready for prime-time, due primarily to its lack of shadow variables and task intents (#18500). That said, it still seems to be in strictly better condition than vectorizeOnly() is and steering people away from vectorizeOnly() seems like the right thing to do in any case. Also, I feel confident that foreach will get better over time, and don't expect that to happen with vectorizeOnly() at this point.