Yes, the python2 TypeErrors for mimatched arguments are sub-optimal.  This has been fixed in python3:

>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', help="foo", action='store_const')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/home/rdmurray/python/p36/Lib/argparse.py", line 1336, in add_argument
    action = action_class(**kwargs)
TypeError: __init__() missing 1 required positional argument: 'const'