IO stat exception when using :l

[Gabor Szabo]

use v6;
my $f = "a".IO;
if $f ~~ :r {
       say 'file readable';
}
if $f ~~ :l {
     say 'symlink';
}

the readability and most other test fail and return some undef, but
checking for :l (symlink) throws an exception if the thing does not exist

stat failed: No such file or directory
  in method l at src/gen/CORE.setting:7042
  in method ACCEPTS at src/gen/CORE.setting:5958
  in block <anon> at t.pl:7

Is that on purpose?

regards
   Gabor