what I'm meaning is that autowrapping a text at char 70 (or 72?) which is already wrapped at char 80 isn't that fortunate.

That's why I suggest change "code" to autowrap at char 80 or to introduce a new tag which autowraps at char 80. (I have problems to imagine displays which can handle 72 chars but not 80)

At the moment "pre" is the best solution for perldocs.