Sounds like I've been outvoted on this, so I'll go with new method(s) for the "don't throw" exception path.

The existing `bootstrap-*` function names don't have the context of throw vs. not throw an exception built in.  I could change those to have a "throwing-exceptions" type of modifier on them but then we'd definitely break all existing callers.  I think I'd prefer to just put the more meaningful name on the new special-case function(s).  Let me know if you disagree.