The first example you give prints the result of the substitution (the result of $string =~ s/_/ /g). If you look at the documentation for s///, you will see that it returns the number of substitutions made. It's easier to see in code.

$string = 'This_has_underscores';
$result = $string =~ s/_/ /g;
print $result;
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That's what the first result is equal to. The second example prints the new $string, which is what you want in this case.

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