Should I use async if I'm returning a Task and not awaiting anything

Question

In an async method where the code is not awaiting anything, is there a reason why someone would mark it async, await the task, and then return?

Besides the potential un-necessity of it, what are the negative ramifications of doing so?

For this example, please assume that QueryAsync<int> returns Task<int>.

private static async Task<int> InsertRecord_AsyncKeyword(SqlConnection openConnection)
{
    int autoIncrementedReferralId =
        await openConnection.QueryAsync<int>(@"
            INSERT INTO...
            SELECT CAST(SCOPE_IDENTITY() AS int)"
    );

    return autoIncrementedReferralId;
}

private static Task<int> InsertRecord_NoAsyncKeyword(SqlConnection openConnection)
{
    Task<int> task =
        openConnection.QueryAsync<int>(@"
            INSERT INTO...
            SELECT CAST(SCOPE_IDENTITY() AS int)"
    );

    return task;
}

// Top level method
using (SqlConnection connection = await DbConnectionFactory.GetOpenConsumerAppSqlConnectionAsync())
{
    int result1 = await InsertRecord_NoAsyncKeyword(connection);
    int result2 = await InsertRecord_AsyncKeyword(connection);
}

Answer 1

Read this blog post from Stephen Cleary:

Eliding Async and Await