[prodigal_erik]

Exceptions must be handled somewhere. Out of band error values are dropped on the floor by default, which is very convenient (if you don't care whether your software works), and many programmers take advantage of it (without realizing they have done so).

[kilink]

I'm not sure what you mean by error values being dropped on the floor by default. In Go or languages with ADTs you would have to consciously ignore an exception. Languages where pattern matching is prevalent force you to deal with the exceptional case to unpack anything useful from an Either for instance.

And if the study is to be believed, checked exception are almost always dropped on the floor, just with more boilerplate and ceremony.