They make valid points, and maybe it makes sense to always prefer them in their context.

I don't think exceptions always lead to better error handling and messages though. It depends on what you're handling.

A huge bin of exception is detailed and has a lot of info, but often lacks context and concise, obvious error messages. When you catch in outer code, and then have a "inaccessible resource" exception, it tells you nothing. You have to go through the stack trace and analyze which cases could be covered.

If explicit errors don't lead to good handling I don't think you can expect good exception throwing either. Both solutions need adequate design and implementation to be good.

Having a top-level (in their server context for one request or connection) that handles and discards one context while the program continues to run for others is certainly simple. Not having to propagate errors simplifies the code. But it also hides error states and possibilities across the entire stack between outer catch and deep possible throw.

In my (C#) projects I typically make conscious decisions between error states and results and exceptional exceptions where basic assumptions or programming errors exist.