"... not correct for their bundled versions ..."

Some core modules are bound to a particular Perl version; for instance, if you look at B or strict (on CPAN) you'll see that their distributions are Perl releases. With these, the Perl version and core module are aligned.

Other core modules have their own distributions on CPAN; for example, File::Temp and File::Spec. With these, assuming there are no backwards incompatibilities, you can install a version later than the core version and use it without any problems. I believe the majority of core modules fall into this category; although, that's just a gut feeling and I'd be happy to be corrected on this.

So, the idea of correctness, in this context, will often have no validity.

"... CPAN modules on the runner had been updated for some reason, even though it is a core module."

There are quite a few scenarios where such updates might occur. A couple off the top of my head:

• I want to use a core module. There's a newer version on CPAN with an optimisation/bug fix/security fix/new feature/whatever that I'd like. I install the newer CPAN version.
• I install some arbitrary module. It has a prerequisite for a core module with a later version than I have. The newer version gets installed as part of the overall installation process. Unless I'm closely monitoring the installation output, I may not even notice that this has occurred.

"To add to the confusion all of the failing reports show File::Spec 3.75 loaded, whatever the perl version is."

The latest "File::Spec CPAN version" is 3.75, and has been since August 2018. The latest "File::Spec 5.36.0 core version" is 3.84, released May 2022. So, the latest CPAN version isn't necessarily more recent than the latest core version.

Overall, I wouldn't get too bogged down with what module versions testers have at the time they test your module. Unless there's some indication that an update occurred to meet one of your prerequisites, it's unlikely their current version has any direct bearing on your module.

Purely out of interest (I don't use Mail::SpamAssassin) I successfully installed your module:

  SIDNEY/Mail-SpamAssassin-4.0.0-rc4a-TRIAL.tar.gz
  /usr/bin/make install  -- OK
[download]

When the CPAN Testers Matrix is next updated, you should see a shiny, new, green swatch against 5.36.0 in the cygwin column. :-)

I'll just note that three of your optional modules failed:

Failed during this command:
 (optional) GRUBER/Net-Patricia-1.22.tar.gz   : make_test NO
 (optional) MAXMIND/MaxMind-DB-Reader-XS-1.000009.tar.gz: writemakefil
+e NO '/home/ken/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.36.0/bin/perl Build.PL' r
+eturned status 256
 (optional) JMEHNLE/mail-spf/Mail-SPF-v2.9.0.tar.gz: make_test NO
[download]

I sent testers reports for all of those. That may be of interest to you; it isn't to me. :-)

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