*Advanced R* 2019 says about copy-on-modify for objects. Then some exceptions (modify-in-place):

> 
> If an object has a single name bound to it, R will modify it in place. 
> 
> 
> Two complications make predicting exactly when R applies this optimisation
>  challenging:
> 
> 
> * When it comes to bindings, **R can currently only count 0, 1, or many**. That
>  means that **if an object has two bindings, and one goes away, the reference
>  count does not go back to 1: one less than many is still many**. In turn, this
>  means that **R will make copies when it sometimes doesn’t need to**.
> * ...
> 
> 
> 

Are the following two sentences contradict each other?

* "R can currently only count 0, 1, or many".
* "if an object has two bindings, and one goes away, the reference
count does not go back to 1: one less than many is still many" and "R will make copies when it sometimes doesn’t need to".

Thanks.