The doing it twice is not a problem. Compilers will just get rid of the dead code. There's unreachable code every time you end an XS function using XSRETURN and the likes. That can't be that rare (especially XSRETURN_YES to return true), and it's got nothing to do with Inline::C.

If you had look at the .xs instead of the .c, you can't even tell there's duplication.

The problem is that Inline::C differs from XS. In XS, one doesn't call PUTBACK. In Inline::C, one must. In XS, the args are poped for you. In Inline::C, one must do so. Is this documented? Don't know. But even if it is, it's confusing and error prone.