Looks to me like the result is real. Adding a few more test cases is interesting:

use strict;
use warnings;
use Benchmark qw(cmpthese);

my $pre = 250;
my $post = 250;

my $baz_match = ('b' x $pre) . 'baz' . ('b' x $post);
my $bar_match = ('b' x $pre) . 'bar' . ('b' x $post);
my $no_match = ('b' x $pre) . 'bza' . ('b' x $post);

print "using_or_index ", using_or_index (), "\n";
print "using_or_noindex ", using_or_noindex (), "\n";
print "using_or_match ", using_or_match (), "\n";
print "using_or_nomatch ", using_or_nomatch (), "\n";
print "using_alt_match ", using_alt_match (), "\n";
print "using_alt_nomatch ", using_alt_nomatch (), "\n";
print "using_set_match ", using_set_match (), "\n";
print "using_set_nomatch ", using_set_nomatch (), "\n";

cmpthese( -1,
         {
             using_or_index =>    \&using_or_index,
             using_or_noindex =>  \&using_or_noindex,
             using_or_match =>    \&using_or_match,
             using_or_nomatch =>  \&using_or_nomatch,
             using_alt_match =>   \&using_alt_match,
             using_alt_nomatch => \&using_alt_nomatch,
             using_set_match =>   \&using_set_match,
             using_set_nomatch => \&using_set_nomatch,
         });


sub using_or_index {
    (-1 != index $baz_match, 'bar') or (-1 != index $baz_match, 'baz')
+ ? 1 : 0
}

sub using_or_noindex {
    (-1 != index $no_match, 'bar') or (-1 != index $no_match, 'baz') ?
+ 1 : 0
}

sub using_or_match {
    ($baz_match =~ /bar/ or $baz_match =~ /baz/) ? 1 : 0
}

sub using_or_nomatch {
    ($no_match =~ /bar/  or $no_match =~ /baz/) ? 1 : 0
}

sub using_alt_match {
    ($baz_match =~ /bar|baz/) ? 1 : 0
}

sub using_alt_nomatch {
    ($no_match =~ /bar|baz/) ? 1 : 0
}

sub using_set_match {
    ($baz_match =~ /ba[rz]/) ? 1 : 0
}

sub using_set_nomatch {
    ($no_match =~ /ba[rz]/) ? 1 : 0
}
[download]

Prints:

using_or_index 1
using_or_noindex 0
using_or_match 1
using_or_nomatch 0
using_alt_match 1
using_alt_nomatch 0
using_set_match 1
using_set_nomatch 0
                      Rate using_alt_nomatch using_alt_match using_or_
+nomatch using_or_noindex using_set_nomatch using_or_match using_or_in
+dex using_set_match
using_alt_nomatch   9692/s                --            -22%          
+   -99%             -99%              -99%           -99%           -
+99%            -99%
using_alt_match    12385/s               28%              --          
+   -98%             -98%              -98%           -98%           -
+98%            -99%
using_or_nomatch  667281/s             6785%           5288%          
+     --              -4%               -5%           -17%           -
+19%            -26%
using_or_noindex  696846/s             7090%           5527%          
+     4%               --               -1%           -13%           -
+16%            -22%
using_set_nomatch 701884/s             7142%           5567%          
+     5%               1%                --           -13%           -
+15%            -22%
using_or_match    804828/s             8204%           6399%          
+    21%              15%               15%             --            
+-2%            -10%
using_or_index    825420/s             8417%           6565%          
+    24%              18%               18%             3%            
+ --             -8%
using_set_match   898573/s             9172%           7155%          
+    35%              29%               28%            12%            
+ 9%              --
[download]

My guess is that the regex $str =~ /foo/ devolves to something pretty much like Index $str, 'foo' which can be pretty quick!

The surprise is how fast using a character set with a common prefix match is. That result also goes a long way to validating the benchmark.

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