I cannot remember if this is a final version or not (I pulled it out of my gmail note bin) but I used this or something like it not too long ago. DBD::SQLite::Cookbook. Some simple stuff like this can work but I generally agree that chasing engine agnostic SQL is a losing proposition. :(

use Date::Calc;

$dbh->func("NOW",
           0,
           sub { sprintf('%d-%02d-%02d %02d:%02d:%02d',
                         Date::Calc::Today_and_Now) },
           "create_aggregate");
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