I see a symmetry between return values that you are required to check, checked exceptions (that you therefore have to catch), and patterns that you have to match. In each case, the compiler forces you to handle your errors (or, more generously, the compiler helpfully points out where you failed to do so).

But I think that pattern matching, and even checked exceptions, are much less verbose than constantly checking the return value. That doesn't mean that they're better, just less verbose. (Exceptions in particular - I can invisibly leave this function at points that are not specified. Does that leave everything in a clean state in all possible circumstances? Explicit error returns are much more verbose, but may be easier to reason about, because the information you need is all explicitly visible.)