[BUG] Salt calls with error returns code as zero / successful

[ecstuchi]

Description
A clear and concise description of what the bug is.

Setup

Other Salt calls behave the same way.

(Please provide relevant configs and/or SLS files (be sure to remove sensitive info. There is no general set-up of Salt.)

Please be as specific as possible and give set-up details.

• on-prem machine
• VM (Virtualbox, KVM, etc. please specify)
• VM running on a cloud service, please be explicit and add details
• container (Kubernetes, Docker, containerd, etc. please specify)
• or a combination, please be explicit
• jails if it is FreeBSD
• classic packaging
• onedir packaging
• used bootstrap to install

Steps to Reproduce the behavior
How to reproduce it:

• systemctl stop salt-master.service
• salt '' test.ping
  [root@abc123~]# salt '' test.ping
  [ERROR ] Encountered StreamClosedException
  [ERROR ]
  Salt request timed out. The master is not responding. You may need to run your command with --async in order to bypass the congested event bus. With --async, the CLI tool will print the job id (jid) and exit immediately without listening for responses. You can then use salt-run jobs.lookup_jid to look up the results of the job in the job cache later.
  [root@abc123~]# echo $?
  0

Expected behavior
If there's any error, exit without being zero.

Screenshots
N/A
Versions Report

salt -V

Salt Version:
Salt: 3006.2

Python Version:
Python: 3.10.12 (main, Aug 3 2023, 21:47:10) [GCC 11.2.0]

Dependency Versions:
cffi: 1.14.6
cherrypy: unknown
dateutil: 2.8.1
docker-py: Not Installed
gitdb: Not Installed
gitpython: Not Installed
Jinja2: 3.1.2
libgit2: Not Installed
looseversion: 1.0.2
M2Crypto: Not Installed
Mako: Not Installed
msgpack: 1.0.2
msgpack-pure: Not Installed
mysql-python: Not Installed
packaging: 22.0
pycparser: 2.21
pycrypto: Not Installed
pycryptodome: 3.9.8
pygit2: Not Installed
python-gnupg: 0.4.8
PyYAML: 6.0.1
PyZMQ: 23.2.0
relenv: 0.13.3
smmap: Not Installed
timelib: 0.2.4
Tornado: 4.5.3
ZMQ: 4.3.4

System Versions:
dist: rhel 8.8 Ootpa
locale: utf-8
machine: x86_64
release: 4.18.0-477.15.1.el8_8.x86_64
system: Linux
version: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Ootpa

N/A```
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**Additional context**
Add any other context about the problem here.

[dwoz]

IIRC this has been debated many times and the current behavior is working as intended. @garethgreenaway may remember more details.