why does

launch

exist if

async

can return Unit?

Also has differences in exception handling: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46226518/what-is-the-difference-between-launch-join-and-async-await-in-kotlin-coroutines#46226519

still dont see why launch exists

Because they have different semantics, async throws exception on place where result is requested, launch throws if exception happened. Both make sense but for different cases, for launch do

run and forget

is fine, for async is not fine