I've always had that problem in Windows, where the Perl tool-chain is hostile to spaces and the standard locations contain spaces. Perl is usually not installed under “Program Files” but directly under the root, like it was still 1986.

I've worked around that by using the short-name alias for the intended directory. You might be able to so something similar, creating a symbolic link to the correct directory, and having the Data Directory return that instead.

By all means, report every broken use you find. But I don't think the Makefile and CPAN tools will ever work with them.