> It looks like returning a is merely something that happens to happen.
This is...an odd view to me. With the exception of the "?" convention for usable-as-boolean query methods (which might not be actual booleans but you shouldn't rely on anything other than the boolean sense of the return value) and methods which are specifically documented otherwise, in Ruby every return value is and should be treated as intentional, not something that "happens to happen", and explicit return is used to avoid convoluted control structures when no better way to do so exists.
This is...an odd view to me. With the exception of the "?" convention for usable-as-boolean query methods (which might not be actual booleans but you shouldn't rely on anything other than the boolean sense of the return value) and methods which are specifically documented otherwise, in Ruby every return value is and should be treated as intentional, not something that "happens to happen", and explicit return is used to avoid convoluted control structures when no better way to do so exists.