Things that look like they use copying in C++ often don't use copying in the final output. Values are usually returned by reference, and many C++ compilers can often avoid a copy even when that's not the case (e.g. Return Value Optimization).

Even if the compiler doesn't optimize everything away, copying is sometimes faster, always safer and always easier than passing around pointers.

It's a big lesson I learned for C++ - write correct code first; profile; fix any real performance problems, rather than obsessing about my preconceived notions of what would be slow.