But $re doesn't hold a scalar in your first line! It holds a reference to the blessed regex.

You can bless a reference to a reference, which is what I'm starting to prefer. Your way works just as well, but I think it's more clear to say:

my $re = qr/(test)io;    # added captures for the example
my $class = 'Test';
my $regex = bless(\$re, $class);    # bless a reference to the compile
+d regex

my $data = "testing!";
if ($data =~ /$$regex/) {
    print "Found $1!\n";
}

print ref($regex), "\t", ref($$regex), "\n";
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