- arbitrary subroutine sets come into play at so high a level of abstraction that only very specific situations can imagineably need them. Multiple filehandles are an everyday occurrence. Unless you're the kind of programmer that still uses global variables for everything, it is necessary to lexically rather than bareword declare filehandles to manage their scope.

- the bareword is just a syntax. There might be rare occasions where specifying a filehandle as a bareword is needed. What is possible with a language does not mean that anything allowed is good practice. For example, proper indentation is good practice. Python enforces it Perl doesn't - this is a feature of Perl, not a licence to write unreadable code.

- Only the writer knows if his jerking of a the knee is a kneejerk reaction or a carefully considered jerking of the knee. You don't have a clue.

- Just because there is more than one way to do something doesn't mean all ways have equal merit all the time.

- You have a lot to learn!