Based upon the way the code was written, it was, at least in the mind of the author. They forgot they could exit scope there. They clearly didn't _intend_ for that outcome, but ended up with it anyways, possibly out of habit, and possibly because a single impactful sigil like that is easy to miss in review.
I get that technically it didn't cause the memory leak.. but just look at the way that was written initially... it obviously led to it _within_ that particular structure.
Based upon the way the code was written, it was, at least in the mind of the author. They forgot they could exit scope there. They clearly didn't _intend_ for that outcome, but ended up with it anyways, possibly out of habit, and possibly because a single impactful sigil like that is easy to miss in review.
I get that technically it didn't cause the memory leak.. but just look at the way that was written initially... it obviously led to it _within_ that particular structure.