References to template arguments of global functions doesn't always work

Consider the following code

template<typename T>
T* smart() { return 0; }

struct A
{
    int a;
};

void foo()
{
    smart<A>()->a;
    A* ai = smart<A>();
    (void)ai->a;
}

Creator doesn't realize in the first statement in foo() that the the lower case "a" is a reference to the a member in the A class. If you take a copy of the A pointer returned then it does figure it out though as seen in the second and third statement.