Technically, the second block of code is not 100% equivalent.
    Why? Well, it uses more instructions (so more memory and
    also takes longer to execute) but it also sets ALL bits of
    the Program Counter, not just the ones that a goto or call
    can.

    We could use the second block of code to goto to a correct
    page, but it would be annoying to use in practice because it
    would mangle the W register.

Does the code even work at all? I don't know anything about PIC microcontrollers, but I would have expected that writing to PCLACH would cause a jump immediately, meaning that the write to the low bits in PCL would never even happen.