Agree with your complaint on async. And on asp.net, async doesn't disrupt that much the workflow (but creates the possibility for deadlocks). But if you are dealing with a UI and make a method async, then suddenly you have a ton more problems to deal with, like what happen if the user changes the state while you are waiting for an async call. That increases a lot the complexity of the code. Which is why I am lukewarm about their approach of mandating async for new features.