Yeah, clearly, I agree, if you have only that in a code line:

 (17, $var, 'a string');
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it is completely useless, and the compiler tells it to you (at least if you use the strict and/or warnings pragmata). Such a list comes to existence only insofar it is somehow used for something. My point was the opposite view, to show how a list can sometimes be useful, but with a very limited scope (usually at most one code line). If you need larger scope, then give it a name and promote it to an array (or possibly another data structure).