That's one way to look at it since it's mathematically equivalent to the to-hit case roll is done before and if succeeds there is no resist roll. There was a patch not too long ago that explained this at least indirectly, since physical damage to-hit was changed to work in this same manner since it always worked this way for DDs.
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Computing the probability that at least one of the following events will occur:
P(a or b ... or z) = 1 - P(!a and !b ... and !z)
Probability
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