If I understand correctly, an argument made by some people on this thread is "if we use the current label syntax to support the `break` <label> and `continue` <label>` feature, then it will lead to a proliferation of labels in programs, which will then increase the number of `goto` statements."

The last step in this argument seems highly speculative. As I see it, there is a strong cultural norm against using `goto`, and people are able to avoid using `goto` even though they already use labels (i.e. in `switch` statements), so, I do not see why adding labels in more places would make the situation any worse.