I don't know ... I was expecting them to monkey patch the sub for the p cmd. That's why $cmd is set, btw.

> en-reference non-scalars

you mean %h -> \%h ... IMHO this could be automatically done with a sub prototype ( like (\[%@$*]) )

> p command without doing that

p is for printing x for dumping,

I'd rather patch x

  DB<1> $x=[1,2,3]

  DB<2> p $x
ARRAY(0x32c8908)
  DB<3> x $x
0  ARRAY(0x32c8908)
   0  1
   1  2
   2  3
  DB<4>
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FWIW you can test aliasing interactively with =

 DB<4> h p
p expr        Same as "print {DB::OUT} expr" in current package.
perldoc manpage    Runs the external doc viewer perldoc command on the
        named Perl manpage, or on perldoc itself if omitted.
        Set $DB::doccmd to change viewer.

  DB<5> h x
x expr        Evals expression in list context, dumps the result.
  DB<6> h =
= [alias value]    Define a command alias, or list current aliases.
  DB<7>
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