I tend to dislike the practice of splitting long lines before operators,

Well it depends on the situation in your example it is not such a big deal. However, problems occur when lines tend run long. Example:

# Long line
my $absolutely_very_long_value = $value_reference->{$first_record}{$se
+cond_key}{super_property} + $value_reference->{$second_record}{$secon
+d_key}{super_property};

# Split Line
my $absolutely_very_long_value 
  = $value_reference->{$first_record }{$second_key}{super_property} 
  + $value_reference->{$second_record}{$second_key}{super_property};
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I think the worst example for a long-line is something like this,

my $print = qq~
# HTML that goes on for 30+ lines
# This some more text here. text text text text text text text~ if $in
+s{save_changes};
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I could have strung up the original programmer for this. This sort of syntax you may not even know you are working on a if statement. You don't see it unless you page down or you have to scroll all the way to the right.