my $array_ref = {};
push(@$array_ref, {});
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The code above, which is part of your second example, gives an error because $array_ref = {} initializes your $array_ref to a hash ref which is not compatible as the first argument of push. It may be sort of symptomatic of your programming difficulties in that initializing $array_ref to a hash ref is confusing and just looks like code that is headed off in the wrong direction. I think your examples add more complication than needed and, for me, trying to simplify gives a result like:

use strict;
use warnings;

sub foo {
    my %hash = ();
    ....
    %hash = ....  # key/values populated by some API

    bar(\%hash);
}

sub bar {
    my $hash_ref = shift;
    my @arr_of_href = $hash_ref;
    
    foreach my $i (.....) {
       ....  %some_hash initialized here for each iteration of the for
+ loop
       push (@arr_of_href, \%some_hash); 
    }

    zzz(\@arr_of_href);   # zzz() will do something with this array
}
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