Nope. split is not called in list context. The fact that it's the second to last statement in the block, and not the last, makes it get called in void context.

As a demo, runt this code:

sub foo {
    printf "foo(%s) called in %s context\n", join(', ', @_),
      wantarray ? 'list' : defined wantarray ? 'scalar' : 'void';
}

@dummy = map { foo('inside', $_); foo('last', $_) }  qw(alpha beta gam
+ma);
[download]

Result:

foo(inside, alpha) called in void context
foo(last, alpha) called in list context
foo(inside, beta) called in void context
foo(last, beta) called in list context
foo(inside, gamma) called in void context
foo(last, gamma) called in list context

Context propagation from the caller to the internal statements only happens on the last statement (for each flow), or in explicit return calls.