I definitely agree with the notion of using Plack, instead of mod_perl.   I frankly don’t believe that it is necessary any more to embed a Perl interpreter environment into an Apache worker-process.   When you relegate the Apache processes to the role of sending a request to an external worker and receiving the result therefrom, it now becomes possible for any PSGI compatible mechanism, including the plackup command-line program, to take its place.   The Apache processes themselves remain as they should be:   lean, mean, and small.   It is now significantly easier to test the web software.