I have no problem with people who know what they are doing using regexps on consenting XML, within the privacy of their own job. If they really know what they are doing, all will be well. If they don't, then they've brought it upon themselves, they have to deal with it. I just have problems with people posting that kind of code, as it will lead people who really don't know what they're doing to think that this is a proper way to deal with XML. This would be indecent exposure if I may push the analogy a little too far ;--)

BTW, if you can't install libxml2 (on which XML::LibXML is based), then try an expat based module, preferably XML::Twig of course ;--) On Windows, XML::Parser comes pre-installed with Activestate Perl. On any sensible platform that includes a compiler, both expat and libxml2 should install easily. XML libraries are generally not over-engineered, it's just that most custom code is under-engineered, not dealing with XML but for a very limited, and usually un-specified subset of XML (no comments, no nested tags, no mixed content are common limitations).

And if you didn't like my tongue-in-cheek police reference, how about calling my original answer a "consumer report" advice to recall the original code, would that fare better with you?