Yes. If you look at steveklabnik's example with the match statement elsewhere in the comments, it makes sense that '!' is the "never" or "unreachable" type, not

Yes. If you look at steveklabnik's example with the match statement elsewhere in the comments, it makes sense that '!' is the "never" or "unreachable" type, not because the return expression isn't run, but because its value will never be assigned to a variable, since it causes an unconditional exit from the function.