I am trying to figure out your "clearly aren't meant" statement and I am failing.

Here are a few lines from perldata:

       but entire arrays or array slices are denoted by '@',
       which works much like the word "these" or "those":

           @days               # ($days[0], $days[1],... $days[n])
           @days[3,4,5]        # same as @days[3..5]
           @days{'a','c'}      # same as ($days{'a'},$days{'c'})

       and entire hashes are denoted by '%':

           %days               # (key1, val1, key2, val2 ...)
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Here are the lines of code together with how I read them.

    # An array is written like @days and can be thought
    #    of as a list of values
    @days               # ($days[0], $days[1],... $days[n])

    # Arrays can be sliced, and a slice of a literal list
    #    is the same as taking a slice of something that
    #    returns a list (in this case a range operator)
    @days[3,4,5]        # same as @days[3..5]

    # Hash lookups can also be sliced, and a slice of a
    #    literal list is the same as taking a literal
    #    list of lookups.
    @days{'a','c'}      # same as ($days{'a'},$days{'c'})

    # You write a hash like %days, and you can think of
    #    it as a list of key/value pairs.
    %days               # (key1, val1, key2, val2 ...)
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Now please explain why I shouldn't take the .. as being a range operator in list context. That is what it looks like was meant, and that fits perfectly...

Also note that the "can think of" that I inserted has an implicit, "but that isn't quite correct" inserted...