sub identifier {m{ <[\w]-[\d]> \w+ }} rule identifier { <[\w]-[\d]> \w }
I personally don't see a lot of difference between those two, but I'll go with you on the "helps people know that $match should be a regex" point. Good enough.
Ehhh, I think rules need more magic than just m{} inside a sub to allow proper backtracking semantics when it's used as a subrule
So that's another very good reason to make them different :-)
-- Matthijs van Duin -- May the Forth be with you!