Im working on solving an Anagram problem wanted to get clever with Javascript methods

here is my code

const stringA = ["hello"]
const stringB = ["olhle"]
let cleanStrA = stringA.replace(/[^\w]/g, '').toLowerCase().split('')
let cleanStrB = stringB.replace(/[^\w]/g, '').toLowerCase().split('')

function charMap (str) {
    str.reduce((acc, cur) => {
        acc[cur] = acc[cur] + 1 || 1 
        return acc
    },{})
    return str
}

let buildCharMapA = charMap(cleanStrA)
let buildCharMapB = charMap(cleanStrB)
console.log(buildCharMapA)

result = ("hello")

When i console log this it returns the original array, but when i remove the function encompassing the reduce method it create the intended object

    let reduceFn = cleanStrA.reduce((acc, cur) => {
        acc[cur] = acc[cur] + 1 || 1 
        return acc
    },{})
console.log(reduceFn)
result = {h:1, e:1, etc.}

What gives?