Should and could golang have been so much better than it is? Would golang have been better if Pike and co. had considered use-cases outside of Google, or looked outward for inspiration even just a little? Unambiguously yes, and none of the changes would have needed it to sacrifice its priorities of language simplicity, compilation speed, etc.
It is absolutely okay to feel that go is a better language than some of its predecessors while at the same time being utterly frustrated at the the very low-hanging, comparatively obvious, missed opportunities for it to have been drastically better.