They do different things...

use 5.010;
use strict;
use warnings;

my @array = ('a' .. 'c');

sub get_ref1 { \@array  };  # returns a ref to @array
sub get_ref2 { [@array] };  # creates an anonymous array and returns r
+ef to it

my $ref1 = get_ref1();
push @$ref1, 'd';
say "(@$ref1) and (@array) - note 'd' has been added to original array
+";

my $ref2 = get_ref2();
push @$ref2, 'e';
say "(@$ref2) and (@array) - note 'e' has NOT been added to original a
+rray";
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