Having had a further look at your OP, you seem to be complaining that the scalar ref value should readonly - I was thinking that you were wanting the anonymous array to readonly?

So is the following a correct summary of your position as to how you would like things to work?

[ 1, 2, 3];  # a readonly temporary reference to a mutable anonymous a
+rray
[ 1, 2, $x]; # also a readonly temporary reference to a mutable anonym
+ous array

bless 'Foo', [1,2,3];# a readonly temporary reference to a mutable ano
+nymous array
                     # where the array was mutated by blessing it

$a = [1, 2, 3]; # $a is a rw copy of the temp ro array reference
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Dave.