O=Deparse only deparses and doesn't actually compile the code, right?

The first sentence B::Deparse's description (emphasis mine):

B::Deparse is a backend module for the Perl compiler that generates perl source code, based on the internal compiled structure that perl itself creates after parsing a program.

But what does the compiler do?

Try it out:

$ perl -MO=Deparse -e 'if($var||2) {print "foo"} else {print "bar"}'
if ($var or 2) {
    print 'foo';
}
else {
    print 'bar';
}
-e syntax OK
$ perl -MO=Deparse -e 'if(2) {print "foo"} else {print "bar"}'
do {
    print 'foo'
};
-e syntax OK
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In the second example you see the code being compiled away.