Slurp all the "lines" from the (probably special) file handle "DATA" into the directories_time_tagged array, then remove the line separator sequence from each entry in the array.

Compact? Sure. Unusual in Perl? Nope. Hard to understand described in English? I don't think so.

Of course the description has to allow a little slop due to the influence of things such as the $/ special variable - but that doesn't really detract from the understanding does it?