Each Linux command returns an exit code, with 0 indicating success and non-zero values indicating failure. You can use the $? variable to access the exit code and control program flow in scripts.

We often write quick bash scripts and judging by the comments, half of us use bash or a similar shell to pop out quick, useful scripts, and half of us think that’s an abomination, and you should ...

Maybe it’s for a help string for a particularly convoluted shell script you’re writing. You could have a separate echo command for each line. Or you could use the “here document“.