Note: I understand that it is trying to match not just "taint value" but also the "taint effect". But is there any use case for matching "taint effect" as well?

A use case that I can think of is having a node with taints of both NoSchedule and PreferNoSchedule for the same key

We can then create 3 "types" of pods

1. Pods that tolerate both

• they will freely be scheduled on the node

2. Pods that tolerate no schedule only

• they don't tolerate preferNoSchedule so that means they CAN be scheduled there but only if necessary

3. Pods that don't tolerate either

• They will never be scheduled on those nodes

It's good to have the control available to you, could be for cost optimisation, could be for tracking resources. In general it's better to have the control and not need it than to need it and not have it