getprop: abi vs abilist

I was reading [this blog post](https://handstandsam.com/2016/01/28/determining-supported-processor-types-abis-for-an-android-device/) on determining the supported ABIs for a phone. It said that, prior to Lollipop, the command is

getprop ro.product.cpu.abi

whereas, after Lollipop, it's

getprop ro.product.cpu.abilist

My phone is running Android 11 and I note that both properties are supported by getprop. Specifically, abi is arm64-v8a and abilist is arm64-v8a,armeabi-v7a,armeabi. Is the support on post-Lollipop devices for getprop ro.product.cpu.abi just for backwards compatibility and, hence, abi is just returning the first item in abilist or does the abi value hold more significance?