Is working with catalyst good or bad for my perl education?

Excellent question.

The answer is that it's definitely good for your Perl education. Developing in Perl isn't limited to just writing your own little scripts to do Some Neat Thing (I've written half a dozen new ones, all very useful, in the last six months). It also involves using Perl modules that work together to fill a business need. I've used Template Toolkit, DBI, CGI::Application and piles of others. I still get lots of chances to write Perl code when using those modules.

In addition, as you use Catalyst, you'll hang out with the Catalyst community, get to know the fans and developers, trade tips, help each other and learn more. What's not to like? :)