in reply to Obtain $data_ref from eval'ed input file that was filtered to look like Perl code

Quite simple. 
sub filter_and_return_ref($) {
  my($fn) = @_;
  open my $f, '<', $fn or return;
  local $/;
  local $_ = <$f>;
  s/\A/{ /;
  s/\Z/ }/;
  s/(\S+)\n/ => "$1",\n/g;
  my $r = eval $_;
  return if $@;
  $r || {}
}

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Update: missing => added. :-)
[]s, HTH, Massa (κς,πμ,πλ)

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom