http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=1000488


in reply to Re: Spurious "Invalid Argument" on file open
in thread Spurious "Invalid Argument" on file open

(I was under the mistaken impression that without a number given, exit returns with exit code of previous command. After reading the exit pod,) exit will return with 0 in case of second example.

I would say unfamiliarity of the shorter version might be the reason for the verbose code. Also, exit cannot simply be caught in eval {}; unlike die or croak but I doubt that that would be the reason for cited uses of exit.