• First of all operate on refs, don't do copies like my %hash = %{shift()}; just take $h_ref=shift

• then allow the recursion to accept all ref types not only hashes

• this seems pretty redundant:

              if (scalar( @{$hash{$key}} ) > 0) {
                  foreach my $list_element (@{$hash{$key}}) {
  [download]

• I'd use if/elsif/else clauses if I were you for different types

• you should handle unexpected types ( like objects) and warn

• This recent post is an incomplete example only for HoHs, but pretty short.

• why are you limiting yourself to a regex at the leaves? Better pass and execute a coderef to have a generic solution.

But I'm pretty sure you are reinventing the wheel, better search the archives or CPAN. (Maybe Data::Diver or Data::Walker already do what you want.)

updates

various ...

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