Thanks for pointing out the potential problem with my code, I've updated the original post.

I agree that XML::Simple isn't simple but at some point you have to provide a mapping between XML and perl data structures and nothing is truly simple. For reading XML without attributes it is good enough, though you do need to be aware of the traps (but that's what the man page and perlmonks are for;).

For "real" XML processing I'd look elsewhere but this wasn't that question and then I'd be far more likely to seek advice than offer it.