Why ion-list?

ionic-v1
1

In Ionic, we can do something like this for the list view:

<ion-list>
        <ion-item href="#">
            Butterfinger
        </ion-item>
    </ion-list>

And also like this:

<div class="list">
        <a class="item" href="#">
            Butterfinger
        </a>
    </div>

These 2 basically output the same layout. What is the difference between these 2? Will do it with the div method will result in better performance? If so, then why ion-list?