Could you explain your pet peeve further?   I'm not sure what you are thinking about.

  $s = "8b\n";
  printf "  %smatch\n", ($s=~/^\d*$/) ? '' : 'no ';
    no match
  printf "  %smatch\n", ($s=~/^\d*/)  ? '' : 'no ';
    match

Without the '$' the checking is, um, untrustworthy.