PerlCritic is like a lint program. It detects constructs that may be buggy (it also detects many stylistic issues that have nothing to do with right or wrong). In that sense, it's just like use warnings. Use warnings will also flag things that may be wrong. Most of the time, it is. Sometimes, it isn't. You have a case where it isn't. PerlCritic has a way to silence a warning. In your case, you should use that.