I tried installing the old Perls until I found one that works. I don't think perlbrew is the problem (other than reporting failure as success lol). Is macos (sonoma+) incompatible with older versions of Perl? I have not tried --force yet, is that advisable? The errors are a bit cryptic to me but I think these are the reasons:

perl-5.6.2 failed C compiler
perl-5.8.9 failed DB_File.o
perl-5.10.1 failed groups.t, locale.t
perl-5.12.5 failed locale.t
perl-5.14.4 failed locale.t
perl-5.16.3 success!

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perlbrew install -v perl-5.6.2

Use which C compiler? cc  
 
Checking for GNU cc in disguise and/or its version number...
gccvers.c:10:2: error: call to undeclared library function 'exit' with type 'void (int) __attribute__((noreturn))'; ISO C99 and later do not support implicit function declarations [-Wimplicit-function-declaration]
        exit(0);
        ^
gccvers.c:10:2: note: include the header <stdlib.h> or explicitly provide a declaration for 'exit'
1 error generated.
 
*** WHOA THERE!!! ***
    Your C compiler "cc" doesn't seem to be working!
    You'd better start hunting for one and let me know about it.

---

perlbrew install -v perl-5.8.9

DB_File.c:3003:5: warning: '}' and ')' tokens terminating statement expression appear in different macro expansion contexts [-Wcompound-token-split-by-macro]
    XSRETURN_YES;
    ^~~~~~~~~~~~
../../XSUB.h:283:65: note: expanded from macro 'XSRETURN_YES'
#define XSRETURN_YES   STMT_START { XST_mYES(0);   XSRETURN(1); } STMT_END
                                                                ^
DB_File.c:3003:5: note: ')' token is here
    XSRETURN_YES;
    ^~~~~~~~~~~~
../../XSUB.h:283:67: note: expanded from macro 'XSRETURN_YES'
#define XSRETURN_YES   STMT_START { XST_mYES(0);   XSRETURN(1); } STMT_END
                                                                  ^~~~~~~~
../../perl.h:357:21: note: expanded from macro 'STMT_END'
#   define STMT_END     )
                        ^
308 warnings and 2 errors generated.
make1: *** [DB_File.o] Error 1
make: *** [lib/auto/DB_File/DB_File.bundle] Error 2

---

perlbrew install -v perl-5.10.1

Test Summary Report
-------------------
op/groups.t                                                    (Wstat: 0 Tests: 2 Failed: 1)
  Failed test:  1
../ext/POSIX/t/posix.t                                         (Wstat: 0 Tests: 66 Failed: 0)
  TODO passed:   11
../lib/locale.t                                                (Wstat: 0 Tests: 117 Failed: 1)
  Failed test:  99
Files=1711, Tests=227048, 325 wallclock secs ( 4.52 usr  1.67 sys + 96.01 cusr 15.00 csys = 117.20 CPU)
Result: FAIL
Failed 2/1711 test programs. 2/227048 subtests failed.
make2: *** [_test_tty] Error 255
make1: *** [_test] Error 2
make: *** [test_harness] Error 2

---

perlbrew install -v perl-5.12.5

Test Summary Report
-------------------
../ext/POSIX/t/posix.t                                          (Wstat: 0 Tests: 66 Failed: 0)
  TODO passed:   11
../lib/locale.t                                                 (Wstat: 0 Tests: 117 Failed: 1)
  Failed test:  99
Files=1806, Tests=349990, 351 wallclock secs ( 6.71 usr  2.00 sys + 113.55 cusr 17.93 csys = 140.19 CPU)
Result: FAIL
make: *** [test_harness] Error 1

---

perlbrew install -v perl-5.14.4

Test Summary Report
-------------------
../ext/POSIX/t/posix.t                                          (Wstat: 0 Tests: 66 Failed: 0)
  TODO passed:   11
../lib/locale.t                                                 (Wstat: 0 Tests: 117 Failed: 1)
  Failed test:  99
Files=2090, Tests=455882, 373 wallclock secs ( 8.16 usr  1.87 sys + 120.61 cusr 19.32 csys = 149.96 CPU)
Result: FAIL
make: *** [test_harness] Error 1

---

perl-5.16.3 is successfully installed.