I tend to share a little your frustration

Recently I had a look into Catalyst because it seemed to me sexy, but after a while I had to step back and restart with the basics. I.e.: my HTML related knowledge is quite limited so, I started to learn HTML and Template at the same time. Now I'm moving into using Template in conjuction with Template::Plugin::DBI.

You seem to have problems with databases, so I think you should learn that first before delving into Catalyst

In my view Catalyst is not out there to teach you how to implement the Model, View or Controller. So if I'm right, you should first "master" those three first and then use Catalyst for the benefits it brings you in terms of development speed/quality and the rest.