Why AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath does not trows exception?

why it does not trows exception if what is returned is null? i mean, i think it would be useful to tell me if the asset is not found, i wrote my own way of doing it, im a very noob girl to C# and Unity, have been learning for 1 year, i know i need a lot to learn and im sure the Unity engineers did it for a reason, but what do you guys think? im doing something bad? any idea to do this in a better way?

 public static Object GetAssetAtPath(string path) 
     {
         StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
         Object result = AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath<Object>(path);
 
         if(result == null)
         {
             sb.AppendFormat("Asset not found at path : \"{0}\"", path);
             Debug.LogError(sb);
         }
         sb = null;
         return result;
     }