If you have a function that always returns exactly one item (as the list of items that it returns), then it doesn't make sense to change this function to return a zero-item list in one special case.
That's not what return; does. It returns something that's false in boolean, scalar, and lists contexts. I know you know this; it just seems valuable to be very explicit about what we're discussing.
Now (on topic), it's difficult for Perl::Critic to recognize the semantic need for that with regard to any single specific Perl function. It seems like a variant of the semi-predicate problem; what does return undef; mean?
Damian's rule is Use a bare return to return failure. I believe that's good advice.
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