I didn't have time yesterday to put this idea into code, but since no-one else did it meanwhile, here it is. The crux of the OP is the need for a tiny enhancement to split, which is as simple as this:

sub MySplit2 { 

    # args being like split but with the third INSTEAD a
    # preservation delimiter -- the OP requirement seems
    # to suggest that should be -1 for split anyway

    my $pat = shift;
    my $str = ( shift () || $_ );
    my $pat2 = shift; # a preservation delimiter
                      # i.e. not splits usual arg3
    my @return = ();
    my $inquotes = 0;

    for my $qs ( defined ( $pat2 )
                 ? ( split( /$pat2/, $str, -1 ) )
                 : ( $str ) ) {
        push @return, $inquotes
                      ? $qs
                      : split( /$pat/, $qs, -1 );
        $inquotes = !$inquotes;
    }
    return @return;
}
[download]

But even if taken to the extreme of including all split's existing bells and whistles, it still manages to remain reasonable in size:

# example:
# while (<FILE>) {
#    ( $name, $address, $tel ) = MySplit( ',',,,'"' );
# }

sub MySplit { # a wrapper for split

    # args being like split but with a fourth for optional
    # preservation delimiter

    my $pat = shift;
    my $str = ( shift () || $_ );
    my $cnt = shift; # copy of split's normal third argument
                     # will be iterated down to zero here
    my $pat2 = shift; # the new argument

    my @return = ();
    my @topush;
    my $inquotes = 0;

    for my $qs ( defined ( $pat2 )
                 ? ( split( /$pat2/, $str, -1 ) )
                 : ( $str ) ) {
        $cnt or ( defined( $cnt ) and last ); # arg3>0  exhaustion
        @topush = $inquotes
                  ? ($qs)
                  : split( /$pat/, $qs, $cnt );

        # update @topush and $cnt to agree with each other
        if ( defined( $cnt ) and ( $cnt >= 0 ) ) {
            $cnt -= ( $#topush + 1 );
            if ( $cnt < 0 )
                $#topush += $cnt;
                $cnt = 0;
            }
        }

        $inquotes = !$inquotes;
        push @return, @topush;
    }
    return @return;
}
[download]