I'm also finding some of your review and critique bizarre and the reasoning as opaque as it is verbose. Good critiques are terse. Good writing is devoid of aphorism. Reviews should take a meta-view or risk becoming opinion editorial.

As a 19 year user of Perl I could not possibly care less about Perls 1-4 except as they might relate to amusing stories from Wall and Co. As mentioned about other areas you found lacking, there are excellent books devoted to them already. No one is going to improve on Friedl's book(s) in regex for example.

As a mostly self-taught programmer, and trained writer, I find chromatic's work above average, deeply helpful, and of great benefit to the community.