[WIP] remove use of deprecated exceptions. refs #1980

do not merge yet.

| Q             | A
| ------------- | ---
| Bug fix?      | no
| New feature?  | no
| BC breaks?    | no
| Deprecations? | no
| Tests pass?   | yes
| Fixed tickets | -
| Refs tickets  | #1980
| License       | MIT
| Doc PR        | -
This looks worser than it was before. A Util method IMO should not `exit()`. Can you elaborate on this change=