No, it doesn't. The function gets created by sub before \& is executed. 

print "a:", exists(&frobnicate)?1:0, "\n";             # 1

my %OPS = (
     frob => \&frobnicate,
     knob => \&knobnicate,
);

BEGIN { print "b:", exists(&frobnicate)?1:0, "\n"; }   # 0

sub frobnicate { '...' }
sub knobnicate { '...' }

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In reply to Re^6: OO-call bug uncovered & autovivified functions: defined? exists? by ikegami
in thread OO-call bug uncovered & autovivified functions: defined? exists? by perl-diddler

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