You'll have to decide whether that would be a problem for you...

Not really. It's not like it's harder to handle the problem. I'd say it's even cleaner.

eval { ... };
if ($@) {
   ...
}
[download]

vs

eval { ...; 1 }
   or ...;
[download]

and

my $x = eval { ... };
if ($@) {
   ...
}
[download]

vs

my ($x) = eval { ... }
   or ...;
[download]