'Performance benefits' may also include low and/or predictable latency. GC is a real problem there. Not insurmountable by any means (witness the number of peopl

'Performance benefits' may also include low and/or predictable latency. GC is a real problem there. Not insurmountable by any means (witness the number of people who use java for latency sensitive applications), but a problem nonetheless. Edit: Also, depending on how they're used, exceptions can be easier to avoid than GC. IOW, if an exception has been thrown at all, you may well have bigger problems than the latency cost of throwing.