I could upload a patched, renamed version of the module. I've done this today. While it has the effect of bringing a fixed version nearly instantly to other users, it clutters the namespace and confuses other users.

I don't buy the "it clutters the namespace" argument. If everyone would use that, noone will upload a new module -- they all "clutter the namespace" in the same way.

As for confusing other users, why? Do you use confusing names? Do you write gibberish in your README? What is it what you do to confuse people? Really, CPAN is full of modules X that use module Y, Z and W. That doesn't seem to confuse people, so I'm curious, what do you do to make it confusing?

There's little difference between a module Foo::Bar::Baz that uses the functionality of Foo::Bar, extends the functionality of Foo::Bar, is a wrapper with a different API around Foo::Bar, does some aspects of Foo::Bar differently, or works around a bug in Foo::Bar.