my $op = '+';
my $and_maker_5 = arbitrary_operator_maker($op, 5);

my @list_5 = (1..5);

timethese(1000000, {
  'and_maker 5 elements cached' => sub {
    $and_maker_5->(@list_5);
  },
  'and_maker 5 elements dispatched' => sub {
    my $and_maker_5 = arbitrary_operator_maker($op, 5);
    $and_maker_5->(@list_5);
  },
  'multi_add 5 elements' => sub {
    multi_add(@list_5);
  },
});

Benchmark: timing 1000000 iterations of and_maker 5 elements cached, and_maker 5 elements dispatched, multi_add 5 elements...
and_maker 5 elements cached:  2 wallclock secs ( 0.98 usr +  0.00 sys =  0.98 CPU) @ 1020408.16/s (n=1000000)
and_maker 5 elements dispatched:  4 wallclock secs ( 2.95 usr +  0.01 sys =  2.96 CPU) @ 337837.84/s (n=1000000)
multi_add 5 elements:  3 wallclock secs ( 2.53 usr +  0.01 sys =  2.54 CPU) @ 393700.79/s (n=1000000)