Does this help?

You start with xml2XMLRules pm973038.xml and then you're running on steriods ( XML::Rules is XML::Simple on steriods )

#!/usr/bin/perl --
#~ 2012-05-29-09:18:14 by Anonymous Monk
#~ perltidy -csc -otr -opr -ce -nibc -i=4     

use strict; use warnings;
use XML::Rules;
use Data::Dump qw/ dd /;

@ARGV or die "Usage: pm973038.pl  pm973038.xml\n";

Main( @ARGV );
exit( 0 );

sub Main {
    my( $xmlfile ) = @_;
    
    my $t = XML::Rules->new(
        qw/ stripspaces 8 /,
        rules => [
'bad_info,bar_number,foo_datum,good_info,timestamp,ugly_info,unique_id
+entifier' => 'content',
'bar,foo,thing' => 'as array no content',
'bad,bars,eggsmell,foos,good,things,ugly' => 'no content'

        ],
    );
    
    my $res = $t->parsefile( $xmlfile );
    dd $res;
    
} ## end sub Main

__END__
$ perl pm973038.pl  pm973038.xml | perltidy

{
    eggsmell => {
        things => {
            thing => [
                {
                    bars => {
                        bar => [
                            {
                                bad        => { bad_info  => -1.5 },
                                bar_number => 0,
                                good       => { good_info => -118 },
                                ugly       => { ugly_info => 7.5 },
                            },
                            {
                                bad        => { bad_info  => 0 },
                                bar_number => 1,
                                ugly       => { ugly_info => 3.5 }
                            },
                        ],
                    },
                    foos => {
                        foo =>
                          [ { foo_datum => "ABC" }, { foo_datum => "XY
+Z" } ]
                    },
                    unique_identifier => 23456,
                },
                {
                    bars => {
                        bar => [
                            {
                                bad        => { bad_info  => -1.5 },
                                bar_number => 0,
                                good       => { good_info => -116 },
                                ugly       => { ugly_info => 7.5 },
                            },
                            {
                                bad        => { bad_info  => 0 },
                                bar_number => 1,
                                ugly       => { ugly_info => 3.5 }
                            },
                        ],
                    },
                    foos => {
                        foo =>
                          [ { foo_datum => "SOS" }, { foo_datum => "FM
+L" } ]
                    },
                    unique_identifier => 23458,
                },
            ],
        },
        timestamp => "2011-05-09 23:05:33",
    },
}
[download]

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