I can't comment on this particular feature - it sounds nice, but I don't think I need it right now.

So my question is about how new, possibly not-so-cool features in perl5 are needed, - has everyone gone off to perl6? Is trying to add new stuff in perl5 is flogging of a dead horse?

I'm slowly wandering off to Perl 6, but I feel like I'm about the only one, there's still a strong community of Perl 5, and lots of cool stuff gets developed both on CPAN and in core. Perl 5 is not a dead horse (only the ponie is dead...)