This is actually a good example of something that really bothers me in #ActivityPub / AS2 / #JsonLD
From a security standpoint and from a performance standpoint there is a world of difference between replies returning:
A list of references
A list of Links
A list of Objects
But from the standpoint of AP/AS2 there is no difference between these. They are all the same, and the documentation provides no guidance on navigating this.