for those who dont know regex, they will think that you made a "great" modification on it... all you did was insert the "join" on reference... in fact when you say "should have been", is in fact modificate the $regml result, so it can be called all togheter, without the "join" command
inserting "join" on reference to modificate the $regml, is not "should have been" or extra mile, when it wont affect the final result, you will probably say that is "repetitive" or go an "extra mile", but no great modification were made, and the final result is the same