Basically, the difference between "a logic error in the calling script — so the caller should abort too, because the caller has been proven as of that execution

Basically, the difference between "a logic error in the calling script — so the caller should abort too, because the caller has been proven as of that execution-step to be misprogrammed, and so continuing could be dangerous"; vs "anything else that isn't the calling script's fault." For actually digging into the "anything else" and fixing it (if you even have the privileges on the offending system) — well, that's what error messages are for.