I don't get that using it in a limited scope isn't worthwhile, and I'm not arguing that. I'm actually arguing the opposite. I want normal dereference to fail. This is to replace a common but wordy idiom, not change the language as a whole. I don't see anything safe about ignoring errors in general unless explicitely told to. Which the operator would do.

I'm not uncomfortable with it, I simply think it's a bad idea for Perl. The explicit operator on the other hand works in a small scope, is explicit and recognizable. Which I'd probably use quite often. "Ignore all my method errors" is something I'd never do.