I agree with you and I agree with davorg's suggestion to use File::Find::Rule. The rules can be a bit verbose so I put them in a sub.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use File::Find::Rule;

my $dir = 'c:/www/sw/category';

my $rule = get_rule($dir);

while (my $file = $rule->match) {
  print "$file\n";
}

sub get_rule{

  my ($dir) = @_;
  my $rule = File::Find::Rule->new;
  
  $rule->or(
    $rule->new
         ->directory
         ->name(qr/^_/)
         ->prune
         ->discard,
    $rule->new
  );
  
  $rule->name('*.html');
  
  $rule->file->not(
    $rule->new->name('00template.html'),
    $rule->new->name('00greybox.html'),
  );
  
  $rule->start($dir);
  
  return $rule;
}
[download]