In any case, it seems that you are advocating trying to use a data structure appropriate to the task, rather than relying on a generic structure that might be less suited. Am I understanding correctly?

Yes, that's the Perl (and Unix) way. You have a large toolkit at your disposal, with lots of different tools. Different tools for different jobs. Use your toolkit. The saying "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" is not at all appropriate for Perl.

Abigail