There was some META_MERGE data also added to the Makefile.PL, and no META.yml or META.json included in the distro. I've just uploaded 0.54_01 yesterday, which contains MakeMaker-generated META.yml and META.json.0,54_01 is looking good - Christian Walde's 5.16.3 Windows smoker (which was one of the "offending" machines) is back to normal.
I meant 0.54_04 ... not 0.54_01. Groans, Rob