I have no issue with examples being simplified (although my personal preference is for actual case studies). I only have an issue with examples being oversimplified, in which the example serves to make the technique look harmful rather than helpful.

The particular example not only leads to the technique appearing to be overkill, which most simplified examples will. It actually leads to the particular code of the example being, IMHO, less expressive and more prone to bugs after use of the technique than before. That surely will not build confidence in the technique.

I think that examples should, when possible, probably serve to show not just the How, but also the Why. I think this choice of example on Fowler's part does not show why to use the technique in question. That's nothing against agianni's repetition of the example here, since the point of this series of nodes on agianni's part is to go through the exercises in order as Fowler presented them and show how they may apply in Perl.