I was going to say that such an alternative history C++ could have had MRVs earlier, or even sum types... but apparently exceptions were added a decade after co

I was going to say that such an alternative history C++ could have had MRVs earlier, or even sum types... but apparently exceptions were added a decade after constructors (if we draw that back to the original "C with classes"). So yeah, you're right that constructors led to exceptions, unless the designers of C++ had been willing to go back to the drawing board and entirely redo constructors.