I kind of feel like set -o errexit (i.e. set -e) provides enough unexpected semantics that explicit error handling makes more sense. One thing that often trips people up is this:
set -e
[ -f nonexistent ] && do_something
echo 'this line runs'
but
set -e
f(){ [ -f nonexistent ] && do_something; }
f
echo 'This line does not run'
