But that is a false claim. It's not about being EAFP or LBYL: if the open API returns a handle to file or null, the open operation can still be atomic and there

But that is a false claim. It's not about being EAFP or LBYL: if the open API returns a handle to file or null, the open operation can still be atomic and therefore race-free. Which is exactly how it's in all the programing languages and operating system calls which don't use exceptions for that. It's just the question if one has to write try-catch for something as common as file not existing.