Personally Class::DBI scares me. While it sounds like you have some fair points, and some reasonable comments from other monks, i think there is an angle not mentioned. Maybe your Boss has a point to some of his carping? Maybe overreliance on "magical" modules that you dont know that well is part of the problem? (Note i dont know who you are or what your skill levels are, for all i know you could have written C::DBI in the first place, so im not trying to be snotty here.)

For instance i've seen a lot of comments about C::DBI that make me think its not suitable for nontrivial production DB enviornments. My own personal experience with it convinced me quite quickly I wouldn't gain any dev time, nor quality by using it. Maybe you need to reasses your tools in light of the comments by your boss and the apparently aggresive time schedule that your project is operating under.

Also, i think perhaps its worth remembering that Perfect is the enemy of the Good. Its better to have something running properly quickly than to eventually have something running The Right Way.