Is it correct to use OP_PUSHDATA1 to encode data less than 76 bytes?

Question

According to https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Script#Constants, for data between 1-75 bytes, the length byte is directly appended to the data, without any OP_PUSHDATA op-codes.

However, I noticed that in many coinbase transactions, there exists OP_PUSHDATA1 for data less than 76 bytes.

Are both ways of encoding data between 1~75 bytes correct, with and without OP_PUSHDATA1?

For example, in the last output of transaction 2c1f1797e05d0b16c0a0aa03985a47920275ffb080439614ef08b7ee019b9511, the 41 (0x29) bytes data 52534b424c4f434b3a4cf1e3f3539bb748501d706ad13227e5eb123b2f226f03d735001321004c43f7 was encoded as:

6a4c2952534b424c4f434b3a4cf1e3f3539bb748501d706ad13227e5eb123b2f226f03d735001321004c43f7

instead of

6a2952534b424c4f434b3a4cf1e3f3539bb748501d706ad13227e5eb123b2f226f03d735001321004c43f7

Below is the Bitcoin transaction in question:

{
  "txid": "2c1f1797e05d0b16c0a0aa03985a47920275ffb080439614ef08b7ee019b9511",
  "hash": "fe33cf3518e858f5301edb792e6d48e7176a35eebdb6c64aba3641dc291c5874",
  "version": 1,
  "size": 368,
  "vsize": 341,
  "weight": 1364,
  "locktime": 1060266043,
  "vin": [
    {
      "coinbase": "0382cd0b2cfabe6d6d559a043760d4418ea56a139ecc10c2f02618b68354d662d18e42972da7159a8210000000f09f909f092f4632506f6f6c2f660000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000050068000000",
      "txinwitness": [
        "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
      ],
      "sequence": 0
    }
  ],
  "vout": [
    {
      "value": 6.26354634,
      "n": 0,
      "scriptPubKey": {
        "asm": "OP_DUP OP_HASH160 c825a1ecf2a6830c4401620c3a16f1995057c2ab OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG",
        "desc": "addr(1KFHE7w8BhaENAswwryaoccDb6qcT6DbYY)#flw9lhul",
        "hex": "76a914c825a1ecf2a6830c4401620c3a16f1995057c2ab88ac",
        "address": "1KFHE7w8BhaENAswwryaoccDb6qcT6DbYY",
        "type": "pubkeyhash"
      }
    },
    {
      "value": 0.00000000,
      "n": 1,
      "scriptPubKey": {
        "asm": "OP_RETURN aa21a9ed306308136280f52cb5206de82c5e143c4661a14833bfb4be86bb4f3bfb050e20",
        "desc": "raw(6a24aa21a9ed306308136280f52cb5206de82c5e143c4661a14833bfb4be86bb4f3bfb050e20)#zxjkvxlz",
        "hex": "6a24aa21a9ed306308136280f52cb5206de82c5e143c4661a14833bfb4be86bb4f3bfb050e20",
        "type": "nulldata"
      }
    },
    {
      "value": 0.00000000,
      "n": 2,
      "scriptPubKey": {
        "asm": "OP_RETURN 48617468c01245061cd08921f42aa661cd788e70ac71022b06ad6ea4a6017cd1a2a81f63",
        "desc": "raw(6a2448617468c01245061cd08921f42aa661cd788e70ac71022b06ad6ea4a6017cd1a2a81f63)#jndu367m",
        "hex": "6a2448617468c01245061cd08921f42aa661cd788e70ac71022b06ad6ea4a6017cd1a2a81f63",
        "type": "nulldata"
      }
    },
    {
      "value": 0.00000000,
      "n": 3,
      "scriptPubKey": {
        "asm": "OP_RETURN 52534b424c4f434b3a4cf1e3f3539bb748501d706ad13227e5eb123b2f226f03d735001321004c43f7",
        "desc": "raw(6a4c2952534b424c4f434b3a4cf1e3f3539bb748501d706ad13227e5eb123b2f226f03d735001321004c43f7)#akullk9c",
        "hex": "6a4c2952534b424c4f434b3a4cf1e3f3539bb748501d706ad13227e5eb123b2f226f03d735001321004c43f7",
        "type": "nulldata"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Answer 1

Yes, both encodings are valid. Of course, using just the length byte (sometimes called OP_PUSHBYTES_x) requires one fewer byte of space, so it's usually done that way.