My personal opinion is that the "branch new" command should be removed.
I don't see the point it in.  One does not have to "create" branches in
Fossil - they spring into existence on their own as they are needed.

I suspect that the "branch new" command stems from prior exposure to other
VCSes (svn perhaps?) where branches do have to be explicitly created prior
to use.  But Fossil does not work that way.  My suspicion is that the
"branch new" command was added for familiarity for people coming from other
VCSes.  I did not have anything to do with the "branch" command myself.

Looking further, I see that the "branch list" command does not appear very
helpful either, at least not in its current form.  Perhaps if "branch list"
actually returned a list of branches, rather than a timeline, it would be
useful for something.  But in its present form, my preference would be to
remove the entire "branch" command - both "branch new" and "branch list".

So, are there any objections to solving this ticket simply by removing
the "branch" command?  What arguments are there in favor of keeping the
"branch" command around?