object.exist() in QTP needs company

It took me some time last week to figure out that the .exist() method does not work on a stand alone base. It passes a return value, and you need to do something with that value. For normal usage of .exist() this is obvious:

If QTPobject.exist Then msgbox "The object is present!"

But as a WinRunner user (did I mention that before?) I use the appearance of objects as an intrinsic synchronization method like:

btn_click("Open New Window");
win_exists("New Window", wait_normal); # synchronize 'wait_normal' seconds
set_window("New Window", 1);
...

Since I did a lot with webtesting, I didn't like to use the set_window() function before the frame was actually present, because it could cause a IE crash. That is why I used the win_exists() function.

But now in QTP. When you use .exist() with QTP objects in this way, it won't work:
QTPobject.exist
    or
call QTPobject.exist
results in an 'Method is not valid for this object' error.

The only way to let it work, is passing the outcome to a dummy variable:

dummy = QTPobject.exist

This sometimes exotic behavior of QTP can be frustrating.