reverse sort { arbitrary code } @list will always be less efficient than sort { arbitrary code with $a and $b swapped } @list
Not always, the number of comparisons and swaps performed by sort will depend on the order of the list. On my machine, reverse sort {$a <=> $b} (1..100000); is faster than sort {$b <=> $a} (1..100000);
For almost all cases, you are correct, but it is not _always_ the case.