I will only comment on the flaws in script 1, as that deals with Text::CSV

• my @names = $csv->getline ($io); assigns an array ref to a list. That's not what you want.
  my @names = @{$csv->getline ($io)}; is the coreect mantra.
• always_quote is void on parsing. That is a generator option.
• make it a habit to always pass binary => 1
• Use auto_diag => 1 on csv initiation or $csv->oef or $csv->error_diag () after parsing

use strict;
use warnings;
 
use Text::CSV;
use Data::Dumper;

open my $io, "<", "player_characters.csv" or die "player_characters.cs
+v: $!";

my $csv = Text::CSV_XS->new ({
    sep_char         => "|",
    allow_whitespace => 1,
    blank_is_undef   => 1,
    binary           => 1,
    auto_diag        => 1,
    });
my @names = @{$csv->getline ($io)};
$csv->column_names (@names);
while (defined (my $hr = $csv->getline_hr ($io))) { 
    print Dumper ($hr);
    }
[download]

If you do not use the @names after you set it, other than to assign to to column names, you can combine the in one call, as column_names () accepts both a list or a list ref

$csv->column_names ($csv->getline ($io));

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