... the interpreter is less strict than the manual... Perhaps this is ... version specific ...

It is not version specific, as demonstrated by this example under ActiveState 5.8.9:

c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le
"print qq{perl version $]};
 ;;
 my %hash = (
   func => sub { print qq{hi $_[0]}; },
   elem => [ 'fee', 'fie', 'foe', ],
   );
 ;;
 $hash{func}('there');
 $hash{func}->('sailor');
 ;;
 print $hash{elem}[2];
 print $hash{elem}->[1];
"
perl version 5.008009
hi there
hi sailor
foe
fie
[download]

AFAIK, this is universal.

As I mentioned in my /msg to you, I also thought the syntax  $general{data}() would not work. I'm sure this is discussed somewhere, but I haven't had the time yet to search it out. Basically, use of  -> (see The Arrow Operator in perlop) is only required at "top" level in a nested hash, array or code reference chain that's accessed initially by reference. That's because everything below the topmost level in a multi-dimensional structure must always be a reference of some kind (if it's not a simple string or number), and Perl implicitly understands this.