return $$e if my $e= exists $export_def->{'..client_default_version'}{$client};

The lexical $e will not be visible until the next statement, so even if exists returns a reference, it isn't very useful. You'd have to declare $e before the statement, or use a package global instead. Both are ugly, imho.

perl -wle'print $foo if my $foo = 123'
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Juerd
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