You can check it, but I'm pretty sure the difference is negligible. But yeah, all benchmarks are using the code in perf and the pop code is just to demonstrate. It is not benched.
Edit: dropping the extra list() from the blog code examples.
Edit: dropping the extra list() from the blog code examples.
I don't really buy that it reads nicer in prose since you can just do (a + b).sort() if you want. Plus, I feel like it's important for readability to not be unnecessarily redundant. Having list(a + b) code also risks creating misconceptions about how lists can be constructed and used in Python.