Item 1 is because return_foo is a horrible method name and I, the author, keep forgetting it. Still, this module is popular enough that I worry quite a bit about changing the API, even though I don't plan on removing deprecated methods for a long time.

Dooo eeeet.

Seriously. You're not going to upset anyone at all, you'll just get lots of cheering. Go ahead, don't think twice about it.

new_from_scalar is fine with me as well.

I don't know how I feel about new_from_fqdn, which is probably supposed to be new_from_url, as FQDN = Fully Qualified Domain Name, which is not nearly the same as a URL. If I'm guessing correctly, that would download the page as well? In that case, I'd prefer new_from_request which takes a HTTP::Request instead. For simple use cases you can just apply HTTP::Request::Common and say

$p = HTML::TokeParser::Simple->new_from_request GET 'http://www.perlmo
+nks.org';
[download]

That would allow seamless application to more complex use cases like POST requests. If you really want to, I guess you could DWIM on whether the parameter is an object or a string.