Your version won't produce the result you want if the function returns only one value: you'll just get the value returned.

The p5p version works by filling a list with the return values and then assigning the list, not the function, to a scalar, and works equally well with one or more return values.

It also allows you to keep the return values. This will give you a taste of what it's like maintaining my old code:

sub splat {
    my @letters = split(/\s/,$_[0]);
    return (rand(2) > 1) ? @letters : \@letters;
}

my $count = my @letters = splat('The world is all that is the case.');
my $output = join(",",($count > 1) ? @letters : @{$letters[0]});
print $output;
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