I probably hit some transient issue in my system, but I may have run into a case where

(-> (..return a chan..) <!!)

(let [rc (..return a chan..)] (<!! rc))

(let [c (a/chan)
      f (fn [] c)]
  (a/go (a/>! c :value))
  (a/go (-> (f) a/<! prn))
  nil)

Meant <!! as well, and for me the simple case works too

doesn't work...... how?

doesn't work as in block seemingly endlessly

a channel that doesn't give any values will block endlessly if you take from it

doesn't matter the syntax

could it be that something else is different about the two different tests that were performed?

Yeah, I convinced myself that maybe the syntax would be the difference, but another issue somewhere is more likely. Couldn't really google on thread-first with core.async. Therefor wanted to check if this syntax was something that maybe could have been a thing.

-> is low on the list of suspects