Yes, expressions spanning statements would be unprecedented. And the 'otherwise EXPRESSION;' construct would be an syntax construct spanning statement, which also would be unprecedented. And it's omision doesn't contradict Perls philosophy - I bet Larry's first reaction would be:

What would

    print "Hello";
    otherwise print "world";
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do?

And the smartass who would say otherwise looks at the last expression evaluated, and hence would only print "Hello", as print returns 1, I'd like to point that in such a case:

    $x = 0 if 3 > 2;
    print "foo" otherwise;
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will both assign 0 to $x, and print "foo" - as the assignment to $x is the last expression evaluated.