Why do you want an array without a reference? Arrays that are accessed by references can do exactly the same things, only the syntax is a bit different.

By the way, consider DBIx::Simple, which allows you to do:

my @emps = $db->query("SELECT ename FROM emp ORDER BY ename")->flat;

foreach my $emp (@emps) {
    ...
}
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"flat" means: take all results and return them as one flat list.