Lifecycle

The core design challenge is that the same object must work whether it is freshly created or loaded from storage. A single-phase constructor can't handle both cases — if it creates default child objects, it will overwrite data that was just deserialized. STRVCT solves this with a three-phase sequence: init() sets up primitives and slot defaults, finalInit() creates complex child objects only if they weren't already loaded from the store, and afterInit() runs once the full object graph is ready. This separation means persistence is transparent — a class doesn't need different code paths for "new" vs. "loaded."