* map from keys to <i>nonempty</i> collections of values:
 *
 * <ul>
 *   <li>a → 1, 2
 *   <li>b → 3
 * </ul>
 *
 * ... or as a single "flattened" collection of key-value pairs:
 *
 * <ul>
 *   <li>a → 1
 *   <li>a → 2
 *   <li>b → 3
 * </ul>
 *
 * <p><b>Important:</b> although the first interpretation resembles how most multimaps are