With the increase in modern processor speeds, surely we could spare a few extra cpu cycles, to make that happen to avoid the problem.

That was only a tongue-in-cheek analogy, but the problem of with the leap into the stack and transfer the program flow to some other place in the program at any given instance in time remains.

Perhaps a better analogy is allowing the audience, or even the actors on stage, to take phone calls in the middle of a performance. The thought trains involved are even more nebulous patterns of firing neurons, but still the impact is not confined to the individual, but upon all other partisipants. Audience and players combined. And recovery is just as difficult.

There are much better ways of dealing with the indeterminate nature of blocking IO: namely. Asynchronous IO which is available on most platforms, and has been for years. But I don't think it ever made it into that dead dodo of a standard that is POSIX?

By the way, what would be a good way to generate a blocked I/O condition, for testing?

The very simplest is my $input = <STDIN>;.