Additionally, who else runs into this problem? Is there some alternative approach that I should be considering?

It depends on how you define "problem" ... I would suspect you aren't the only one who has had this consideration, but there may not be enough "momentum" behind this idea to motivate or inspire something different. I asked a similar question a while back ... Perl complex data structure ... how to get more flexible access? ... outside of using XPATH, or rolling your own code, or looking into the suggestions in the thread cited previously, I have not been able to find exactly what you are asking for.

In other words ... me too!