It sure is a symbolic reference.

>perl -e"use strict 'refs'; ${'foo'} = 1;"
Can't use string ("foo") as a SCALAR ref while "strict refs" in use at
+ -e line 1.

>perl -e"use strict 'refs'; &{'foo'}"
Can't use string ("foo") as a subroutine ref while "strict refs" in us
+e at -e line 1.

>perl -e"use strict 'refs'; goto &{'foo'}"
Goto undefined subroutine &main::foo at -e line 1.
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You can dereference references and strings. We call the latter "symbolic references" because the reference is a symbol name rather than a true reference. It doesn't matter whether the string is returned from a variable, a string literal or some more complex expression.