In default, non recursive mode, it's only returning the value of zval->nNumOfElements (with a few indirections). It's not count() that's benchmarked here, its

In default, non recursive mode, it's only returning the value of zval->nNumOfElements (with a few indirections). It's not count() that's benchmarked here, its the difference between "$a < $b" and "$a < function_call($b)".