Most programmers will write an error message and halt execution flow (return EXIT_FAILURE, abort(), exit() or even an exception). The hint about assembler give cares about special (maybe optimized or machine specific) code or embedded stuff. And the second example refers explicitly to functions which do exit() and never return actually. The committee tidies up stuff. Something which compilers provide individually is becoming standard.
The rational is better explained there :)
Most programmers will write an error message and halt execution flow (return EXIT_FAILURE, abort(), exit() or even an exception). The hint about assembler give cares about special (maybe optimized or machine specific) code or embedded stuff. And the second example refers explicitly to functions which do exit() and never return actually. The committee tidies up stuff. Something which compilers provide individually is becoming standard.