R's ifelse() doesn't behave as I first expected

ifelse-gotcha.R

pick_something <- function(choice) {
    ifelse(choice == 'list',
           list("here's", "your", "list"),
           "this isn't a list")
}

pick_something('anything_else')
#> [1] "this isn't a list"
pick_something('list')
#> [[1]]
#> [1] "here's"

?base::ifelse
# The important part:
#   ifelse returns a value with the same shape as test which is filled with elements selected from either
#   yes or no depending on whether the element of test is TRUE or FALSE.
# This function is not interchangeable with Python's inline if-else statement.