> Just use lambdas/callbacks

"Just" is doing a lot of work there. I've use callback-based async frameworks in C++ in the past, and it turns into pure hell very fast. Async programming is, basically, state machines all the way down, and doing it explicitly is not nice. And trying to debug the damn thing is a miserable experience

You can embed the state in your lambda context, it really isn't as difficult as what people claim.

The author just chose to write it as a state machine, but you don't have to. Write it in whatever style helps you reach correctness.