The standard, “correct” (IMHO) way to locate and to extract values from an XML packet is through XPath expressions, which are kind of like a query-language for XML.   XML::LibXML supports this natively (using the libxml library, which is also industry-standard).   (There’s a very good chance that your data-source used that library to build the file you’re now consuming.)   You can simply ask for the nodes that you want, and get a list.   Your application does not have to contain “convoluted logic” to match the convoluted structure of the XML.   Some Perl SOAP-packages include this functionality.   Therefore, I would not use XML::Simple for this.

There are many complete SOAP packages in CPAN.   Just choose and install one, and let it “drive you all the way to where you want to go.”