How do you know when your Perl::Critic policies have become too restrictive? One good indicator is that you spend more time complying with them than writing useful code.
Perl no longer asks politely that you don't enter the house without asking permission. Instead, it strip searches you, runs retinal, voiceprint, and fMRI scans while you are thinking about the color blue (fingerprints are soooo 20th century). It asks for your mother's maiden name, the name of your first pet, where you went to high school, your custom vim or emacs key mappings, and whether you prefer tea or coffee (Ok ok, this paragraph was a bit excessive :)
The line at which too many critic policies is drawn is highly subjective, but personally I prefer it on the liberal side. Give me more rope, I'll take responsibility if I end up hanging myself. If you take the rope though, it's your responsibility, just give it back to me at the same length that I gave it to you. Where is the middle ground? It's at the point where you end up hanging yourself the exact same number of times that I can't swing across the chasm because the rope is too short. It is a compromise.
