How do you comprehend "std: :forward is just syntactic sugar"? Is that true?

Question

How do you comprehend "std::forward is just syntactic sugar"? Is that true? I would appreciate that if you could explain the related code below in detail.

As per the documentation(https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/libstdc++/latest-doxygen/a00416_source.html), here is the implementation of std::forward:

    /**
    *  @brief  Forward an lvalue.
    *  @return The parameter cast to the specified type.
    *
    *  This function is used to implement "perfect forwarding".
    */
   template<typename _Tp>
     constexpr _Tp&&
     forward(typename std::remove_reference<_Tp>::type& __t) noexcept
     { return static_cast<_Tp&&>(__t); }



  /**
    *  @brief  Forward an rvalue.
    *  @return The parameter cast to the specified type.
    *
    *  This function is used to implement "perfect forwarding".
    */
   template<typename _Tp>
     constexpr _Tp&&
     forward(typename std::remove_reference<_Tp>::type&& __t) noexcept
     {
       static_assert(!std::is_lvalue_reference<_Tp>::value, "template argument"
                     " substituting _Tp is an lvalue reference type");
       return static_cast<_Tp&&>(__t);
     }
    /**
    *  @brief  Convert a value to an rvalue.
    *  @param  __t  A thing of arbitrary type.
    *  @return The parameter cast to an rvalue-reference to allow moving it.
   */
   template<typename _Tp>
     constexpr typename std::remove_reference<_Tp>::type&&
     move(_Tp&& __t) noexcept
     { return static_cast<typename std::remove_reference<_Tp>::type&&>(__t); }

Answer 1

“std: :forward is just syntactic sugar”? Is that true?

Depends on what one means by "is just syntactic sugar".

How do you comprehend “std: :forward is just syntactic sugar”?

I think that a correct and similar way to describe std::forward is that it is a very simple function template that can be implemented in standard C++.

In other words, providing std::forward in the standard library is not necessary in order for the programmer to do perfect forwarding.