What the OP is saying is that it has a use to satisfy (https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/definition https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/definiti

What the OP is saying is that it has a use to satisfy (https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/definition https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/definition) and in that case it is not optional and not ignored by the compiler. Whether it will "actually" inline it is another matter, that is optional.