Agreed. I'm not familiar with PDP or VAX Basic, but I did grow up on GFA Basic with its PROCEDURE and FUNCTION. Both could be called by just using their name without a GOSUB.

    PROCEDURE printfoo(bar%)
      PRINT "foo: " + bar%
    RETURN
    
    FUNCTION double(number%)
      RETURN number% * 2
    ENDFUNC
    
    ' Prints "foo: 8"
    printfoo(double(4))