I think wombat understands completely that "require strict" is useless. After all, he says, "Therefore you can say 'require strict;' at the top of your code, and then still use the sloppy regular code conventions". I.e., it is useless -- it doesn't prevent sloppy variables, it doesn't hit you up for barewords, etc. It's just a "Silly Roommate Trick".

wombat's point, it seems, is that while useless, "require strict;" is not "masochistic".