OR Preference changing with a return

Question

From what I see operator precedence makes sense in these two examples:

$a = false;
$b = true;
$c = $a || $b;

Here $c is true

$a = false;
$b = true;
$c = $a or $b;

Here $c is false

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I understand the reasoning behind it. However the following:

$a = false;
$b = true;
return $a or $b;

Returns true, which puzzles me.

What is the reason for this?

Answer 1

or has lower precedence than =, so this:

$c = $a or $b;

Becomes this:

($c = $a) or $b;

But this doesn't make sense:

(return $a) or $b;

So you get this:

return ($a or $b);