I just took a quick peek at Config::General's POD, and I notice there's a value there that can normalize the variables that are being passed in my template:

  -AutoTrue
   If set to a true value, then options in your config
   file, whose values are set to true or false values,
   will be normalised to 1 or 0 respectively.

   The following values will be considered as true:

      yes, on, 1, true

   The following values will be considered as false:

      no, off, 0, false

   This effect is case-insensitive, i.e. both "Yes" or "oN" 
   will result in 1.
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Using this method, I may be able to cut down on 80% of my field validation in the original template. I'll give Config::General, Config::General::Interpolated and Config::General::Extended a look, they may be what I seek. Thanks for the tip!