That seems likely. I produced those results on a Red Hat box that someone else administers, so I have no idea how that Perl was built. Still if it happened on that machine, it could easily happen for someone else.
Comment on Re^5: PERL5LIB different than 'use lib'
I never doubted that (nor that saintmike might not be telling the truth) — which is why I would've been interested in seeing his strace output... (as I initially suggested).