I didn't know about this either, but I just looked it up and it appears you can use a hash just like a hash-ref and it will work (but give that warning): 
perl -Mwarnings -Mstrict -e'my %a = ( a => 1); print %a->{a}'
Using a hash as a reference is deprecated at -e line 1.
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In reply to Re^2: When will "Using a hash as a reference is deprecated" be enforced? by Joost
in thread When will "Using a hash as a reference is deprecated" be enforced? by cdarke

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