Instantiate your own LWP::UserAgent object with the fields you deem useful. I don't think that your ssl_opts field is getting passed through. Here's an incomplete example:

my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new(
    ssl_opts => {verify_hostname => 0},
);

my $client = REST::Client->new(
    timeout => 30,
    useragent => $ua,
);
[download]

This has two benefits. First, it allows you to configure the user agent however you like. But second, it provides you full access to the LWP::UserAgent object, so that you can probe and inspect the transaction in far greater detail than what is exposed natively by REST::Client.