I believe that there are exceptions to every rule :). I'm not going to argue with your experience with RabbitMQ and your solution is probably totally correct. But I think making that a general rule is a mistake. I write all kinds of software from web applications, libraries, desktop applications, and even embedded software and there is no one single right way to do error handling. However, 99% of the time, think exceptions with a very small number of catch blocks is easiest, cleanest, and most robust way to go.

I don't believe exceptions create undefined behavior -- the behavior is very much defined. I know exactly how all my apps will react to exceptions I've seen and not seen. I also know exactly where those exceptions will be handled. I'm also very comfortable knowing that there is no error situation that will be not caught and dealt with in some way. I'd like to know why you think differently?

I think the exceptions are a goto has already been debunked enough. Whether you use exceptions or not, your errors will be handled in the same place in the code. It's just one place you're wasting effort manually propagating that error to that same place and in the other you are not.