you are rigth about -textvariable pointing to a nested val: it works correctly (see also why won't Tk textvariable take a reference to an array element? Tk::Entry not updating when textvariable changes. and perl/Tk Entry widget displays wrong value when -textvariable is shared).

My dumping using Data::Dump dd method shows, if you uncomment and so use your original code PBar( $tmpbar, \$pid{ex1}->{val}, -30, 70 )->pack(); that sometimes val is undef:

>perl tkprogressbar.pl

val PBar1: -21.5
val PBar2: -30
("ex1", { as => "temp", val => -30 })
val Labels: -30
("ex1", { as => "temp", val => -30 })

>perl tkprogressbar.pl

val PBar1: -21.5
Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at tkprogres
+sbar.pl line 39.
val PBar2:
("ex1", { as => "temp", val => undef })
Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at tkprogres
+sbar.pl line 21.
val Labels:
("ex1", { as => "temp", val => undef })
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