If I understand this right, I could throw a generic exception-type (possibly even the top-level exception class?) and thereby pass the exception-handling up the class hierarchy. Is that a fair re-statement?
I suppose this is not the place for a Java lesson (though it looks like I need one). But it does help me start to see how this type of structure might be useful in Perl.
(It still seems like a lot of hoops to jump through if this is the only benefit.)