I know this isn't the solution to your problem per se (and I anxiously await any good solution since I could find many a use for it!), but I know that if my company were to have an XML output like this, we would have so many customers complaining ...

I realise that MS's home user support is nearly non-existant. But if this is something you're doing at work (and I would bet that's the case), have you tried raising a stink internally to the point where your contact person with MS raises a stink with them? (If that's you, and if you're not a manager, I would get your manager's approval to go raise a stink - most people would be willing to let you, I would hope.) It's probably going to be cheaper than writing a fix-it tool.