Are you sure your initial example is returning hash refs?

I'm surprised because x dives into nested structures.

Looks for me like you are only returning stringifications of hash refs instead.

update

Please ignore...

I wasn't aware about the maxdepth option when using x ...

from perldebug#Debugger-Commands

• x [maxdepth] expr

If the maxdepth is included, it must be a numeral N; the value is dumped only N levels deep, as if the dumpDepth option had been temporarily set to N.

... since the internal help doesn't show it

  DB<79> h x
x expr        Evals expression in list context, dumps the result.
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