Why? References are not scary and they work just like in any other language -- they are simply a memory address that points to another value stored somewhere else.
my @a = (
{ first=>1, second=>"b", another_ref=>["y"] },
{ first=>1, second=>"b", another_ref=>["z"] },
);
say $a[0]{first}; # Outputs 1
say $a[1]{another_ref}[0]; # Outputs z
my $a2 = \@a; # top level is a reference too now
say $a2->[1]{another_ref}[0]; # Outputs 1, arrow only needed at top level
# The following are alternate syntax that I find unnecessary and better left alone (and most do)
say $a2->[1]->{another_ref}->[0]; # Outputs 1, explicit, entirely unneeded because it's unambiguous without extra arrows
say $$a2[1]{another_ref}[0]; # Outputs 1, extra prefixing $ dereferences first level ref
Personally, I like that it forces you to be aware that this data structure is likely in use somewhere else as well, and your changes may not be local (which is true of deeper levels regardless).