Well, it's not a completely outlandish scenario that the value of `init` might come from a variable that is sometimes at the start of the string and sometimes not, and a newcomer might expect `^` to only match when it is.
Don't get me wrong, it's certainly far more useful as it is, I'm glad it works this way.
I find it hard to imagine any other expectation passing the rubber duck test.
"Oh, so you expected the match to always fail, no matter what the string was?"