I'm making a project and I think “Dang, I could really use a ‘repeat while’ block or something here.”

Then I remember there used to be one, but it got removed and people smuggle it in via backpacking.
But why did it get removed?
I get repeat until does the same thing but inverse, but why remove another option?

There are work arounds for it like

when green flag clicked
if <touching color [#green] ?> then
repeat (25)

end
end

I don't recall it existing in Scratch 1.4, at least. Not sure if it ever existed (aside from clever folks finding a way to put it into the editor).

The easiest workaround is probably the following:

repeat until <not <>> // put your favorite boolean inside the "not" block

end

The while block was never in Scratch. It was an “experimental block” in Scratch 2.0, which means that it was hidden from the editor. It was only made for testing purposes and was likely never supposed to be released.

ohhh ok thx