That's true, and I do use that approach ("RAII") in languages like C++. It definitely makes cleanup less of a problem. It also means that setup should be done

That's true, and I do use that approach ("RAII") in languages like C++. It definitely makes cleanup less of a problem. It also means that setup should be done no earlier than necessary, declaring variables very close to their first use (otherwise, a setup/cleanup cost may be paid for no reason). Exceptions act like early returns themselves, but I will use them for truly exceptional cases (only). In other words, if a function can return 3 values, I consider those the "normal" cases that should weave through to the end of the function; if the function runs out of memory, I think that's an exceptional case that can return immediately.