or is perlmonks (as much as i love it!) a bit too perfectionistic at times??

It's not about being perfectionistic, it's about being practical. Why should seekers of perl wisdom waste everyone's time on a piece of code which misteriously breaks but doesn't use strict or warnings? Wouldn't you find it embarresing to ask for help, have a monk examine your code and turn strict/warnings on and have the problem become apparent in under 10 seconds? Wouldn't you consider such a post a total waste of everyones time? I sure would