It's a fine notion but it has it's problems.

You now, need to code

• a get_thing() method;

  print $obj->thing;
  [download]

• a set_thing() method;

  $obj->thing = 'someting';
  [download]

• a update_thing() method;

  $obj->thing =~ s[this][that]g;
  [download]

• a return_list_of_matched_subthings() method;

  my @subthings = $obj->thing =~ m[subthing]g;
  [download]

• a return_count_of_subthings() method;

  my $count = $obj->thing =~ m[subthing]g;
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• a get_subthing_iterator() method;

  while( $obj->thing =~ m[subthing]g ) {
      last if substr( $obj->thing, pos( $obj->thing ) - 22, 22 ) 
           eq 'This is *the* subthing';
  }
  [download]

  (Oh! And a substr_thing() method;)

• a preincr_thing() method;

  $obj->thing++;
  [download]

• A postincr_thing() method;

  ++$obj->thing;
  [download]

• (pre/post decr etc. etc)

And all the others that you effectively get for free with a single lvalue method.

All that is missing is a convenient way to validate the assignment.