> Java's language design over-uses exceptions for error handling

No, library authors' design over-uses exceptions. Also refer to people using exceptions to generate 404 http responses in web systems - hey, there's an easy DDOS... This can include some of Java's standard libraries, although nothing springs to mind.

Exceptions are not meant for mainstream happy-path execution; they mean that something is broken. Countless times I have had to deal garbage-infested logs where one programmer is using exceptions for rudimentary validation and another is dumping the resulting stack traces left and right as if the world is coming to end.

It is a problem, but it's an abuse problem, not a standard usage problem.