¿Sería más rápido simplemente poner código dentro de un bloque try-catch en lugar de realizar varias verificaciones de error?

Por ejemplo..

function getProjectTask(projectTaskId) {
    if (YAHOO.lang.isUndefined(projectTaskId) || YAHOO.lang.isNull(projectTaskId) && !YAHOO.lang.isNumber(projectTaskId)) {
        return null;
    }

    var projectPhaseId, projectPhaseIndex, projectTaskIndex, projectPhases, projectPhase, projectTask;

    if (!YAHOO.lang.hasOwnProperty(projectTaskPhaseMap, projectTaskId)) {
        return null;
    }

    projectPhaseId = projectTaskPhaseMap[projectTaskId];

    if (YAHOO.lang.isUndefined(projectPhaseId) || YAHOO.lang.isNull(projectPhaseId) || !YAHOO.lang.hasOwnProperty(scheduleData.ProjectPhasesMap, projectPhaseId)) {
        return null;
    }

    projectPhaseIndex = scheduleData.ProjectPhasesMap[projectPhaseId];
    if (YAHOO.lang.isUndefined(projectPhaseIndex) || YAHOO.lang.isNull(projectPhaseIndex) || !YAHOO.lang.hasOwnProperty(scheduleData.ProjectPhases[projectPhaseIndex])) {
        return null;
    }
    projectPhase = scheduleData.ProjectPhases[projectPhaseIndex];

    if (!YAHOO.lang.hasOwnProperty(projectPhase.ProjectTasksMap, projectTaskId)) {
        return null;
    }

    projectTaskIndex = projectPhase.ProjectTasksMap[projectTaskId];

    if (YAHOO.lang.isUndefined(projectTaskIndex) || YAHOO.lang.isNull(projectTaskIndex)) {
        return null;
    }

    projectTask = scheduleData.ProjectTasks[projectTaskIndex];
}

VS

function getProjectTask(projectTaskId) {
    try {
        projectPhaseId = projectTaskPhaseMap[projectTaskId];
        projectPhaseIndex = scheduleData.ProjectPhasesMap[projectPhaseId];
        projectPhase = scheduleData.ProjectPhases[projectPhaseIndex];
        projectTaskIndex = projectPhase.ProjectTasksMap[projectTaskId];
        projectTask = scheduleData.ProjectTasks[projectTaskIndex];

    }
    catch (e) {
        return null;
    }
}

Espero que mi pregunta tenga sentido. Estaré encantado de aclararlo. ¡Gracias!