Try/catch is if-like if you do it right.... But it's also not mandatory. Hence the argument for Java's checked exceptions... which didn't pan out in the end.

Throwing exceptions in C++ is also incredibly slow, you generally don't want to do it in any path that you expect will actually be exercised in normal operation.

Checked exceptions were a nice idea in theory that definitely didn't work well at all in practice. IMO exceptions should be reserved for "panic" situations, as a friendlier alternative to crashing. (But I also feel they should be used liberally in such situations...)

I cut my teeth on Python's "forgiveness not permission" model and find that exceptions are usually the cleanest model since so few languages have pleasant syntax for alternate return-types, and returning a status code and using out parameters for the actual result is miserable.

Sure but python was built on a model of signalling anything via exceptions, C++ was not, and it sacrifices the exceptional case for the benefit of the nom-exceptional one.

Using exceptions for control flow etc. etc.