It was for the sake of OPpTARGET_MY that the mask was added (in b162f9ead0). Previously, MAXARG was #defined simply as PL_op->op_private. Now that regen/opcode.pl checks that OPpARG4_MASK and OPpTARGET_MY do not conflict, the comment is indeed unnecessary. (So things can stay as they are.) I thought this might be informative, or at least interesting.