> The Python 3 "What's New" should SCREAM that the type file is gone

I don't think the documentation should ever SCREAM.

>     "The type file has been replaced by _ioTextIOWrapper; use open() to 
> open a file; open returns an instance of _ioTextIOWrapper."

That would be an incorrect statement: there are multiple types that
replace the 2.x file type. See the documentation of the io module for
details.