or can supply list contexts to its arguments, but it always returns a scalar... or at least, I've never seen it return a list.

use Data::Dumper;
my @A = qw(1 2 3);
my @B = qw(A B C D);
print Dumper(@A or @B);
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In example C, or does return a scalar. You just don't do anything with the scalar. print @list or die is not parsed as print(@list or die); it's parsed as print(@list) or die. Therefore, print only sees the list; it doesn't see the result of the or operator.

Update: meh... the right hand side of or can result in or returning a list:

use Data::Dumper;
my @A = qw();
my @B = qw(A B C D);
print Dumper(@A or @B);
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The left hand side cannot.