I actually had the same idea in 2001 (I just looked at the file dates), and I wrote a Pod::Class::Flattened which never left my computer. I was somewhat of a n00b at the time and I don't think it was very solid, but it worked for my problem at that time.

If you /msg me I can let you have the source. I probably won't be able to answer questions about it in any coherent way though :)

/J

Update:

This idea with the inherited api documentation is great BTW, I got inspired by reading Bertrand Meyer's Eiffel book.