The problem isn't precedence. The problem isn't keywords either. The problem is that

    new Foo;
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might call either of

    &new ('Foo');   # Calling new in the current package
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or

    Foo -> new ();  # Calling new in Foo, or a parent class
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And there are a bunch of cases that decide which one it will be.

And no, Perl doesn't like "prohibitions". You are free to do whatever you fancy. But the documentation does give advices on how not to get hurt.

Abigail