Lexical variables don't get freed at end of scope. They are cleared on scope exit...
From then on in I was lost. What the difference is between "freed" and "cleared" or "end" and "exit" is in this context defeats me (and I'm not absolutely sure about lexical). Obscure in the extreme without a far deeper explanation of the subject. And that is just the second paragraph. :-)
The title says "Mini-Tutorial: Perl's Memory Management". I would hope this is not included as or referred to as a faq/tutorial for scope or references, there are far friendly ways to do this.