The use of file handle values in specific variables as BUU and bpphillips demonstrated is the most explicit way for everyone to know what is meant, for _all_ uses.

I am not necessarily recommending its use here, but you seem to be overlooking the *foo{THING} syntax. The filehandle part of a typeglob can be gotten to directly by saying *FH{IO}. Here's a simple demonstration:

    $ perl -le 'open TODO, "TODO"; print *TODO{IO}'
    IO::Handle=IO(0x81637f0)
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