> Huh? How do you think `const char s = "Hello"; const char t = &s[1];` works?

So this is just an example of a pointer offset by 1 slot. It's not conceptually all that different to take sub-values of a slot.

To work with values that consume fractions of a byte, such as a 3-bit integer, a pointer + a bit offset is used to grab that value (that complexity is abstracted by the compiler). My argument is the bit shift necessary to load the 3-bits you need from the 8-bit slot is one of the cheapest operations a CPU can do. Meanwhile using 3-bits when all you need is 3-bits allows for things like arrays and packed structs to use much less memory than padding everything to 8 bits.

And why shouldn't a language support that?