Longer explanation:

The problem with symbols is that you need to keep track of them *inside* the document (so I can open a file on a computer that doesn't have those symbols) and that restricts team collaboration (symbols can't be updated once you share the master document with your team).

Fireworks tries to fix this by having symbols both inside and outside the document, but the whole system is a crazy mess and makes you go crazy. Also, it doesn't work (you gotta love Adobe)

Of course, I'd love a symbols feature in Sketch, but IMHO the linked files feature seems easier to build in a bulletproof way and gives us pretty much the same benefits : )

But for a designer who's on his own, going from one document to multiple is definitely a worse experience

Upside is that we can link to non-sketch files as well then of course.
Support for external files in general isn't a bad thing to have

That is actually a very good point.

Just to be clear, I don't see symbols and linked files as mutually exclusive features. I would definitely use both : )

I was just thinking that linked files is a low hanging fruit (so to speak) that could enable us to have a sort-of-library while we get the real thing : )

But offering the inferior solution first will get people used to using that - instead of the better version which will follow later.

A library feature would also be great to have but the same argument goes here.

I'd rather not have a feature than a bad version of it

Sounds good, can't wait to use any of these features : )

Thanks for the conversation!