+ Enum values of different types are incomparable. This is widely seen as a good thing. + Enum values are instances of their Enum; this allows more flexibility in user code. + As a result of the above, you can have a dictionary without Enum values of two different types colliding. + Enum values print in a more friendly way. This is expected to help debugging. + To support the above, enum values know their own name. This is likely helpful both for debugging and for various introspection hacks. + Enums can be iterated over in a fixed order. This allows automated help systems and similar to maintain consistency between runs, improving user experience. + There's a lot more error checking provided to avoid cases like defining the same enum value twice.

But I understand your sentiment. We always enjoy smaller languages because it helps us keep them in our heads. But note that Enums aren't a new language feature -- this PEP simply adds another module to the standard library. The code your provide, flawed as it is, is still a pattern common to many different libraries, so it would be good to put it into the stdlib; but if we're doing that, might as well do it right, don't you think?