It depends, binaries are just data. You reference that data with a path on the filesystem. In a programming language it would be assigning a value to a variable. For static values, the compiler/interpreter can optimize and do deduplication. And you expect it to do so because you don't want a global variable holding the value 1 to do the optimization yourself.

Relying on abstractions to simplify the architecture is a sign something might be right. Simply because simple things are less error-prone IMHO.

but but CPAN usually worked and didn't throw away an entire previous language in favor of a new and entirely incompatible rewrite!

... oh, wait.