So nearly...
is a shorthand for 2x2, which is a special case, since the exponent equals the mantissa. It's only equal to 2+2 by coincidence, though, or rather, due to the fact that 2 enumerates the number of arguments taken by binary (!=base 2) addition. There's nothing terribly pathological about any of this. The result (which I understand Larry wants allowed by Perl 6) that 0