Query mechanisms have two problems ... it's yet another language to learn

I'd rather learn

Persons/Person
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then learning to do

GroupTags  => { Persons => 'Person' },
ForceArray => [qw( Person )],

my @persons = $parent->{Persons} ? @{ $parent->{Persons} } : ();
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and it's slow.

That's not the case. XML::Simple is still *far* slower.

The ->nodeValue()s and ->getAttribute()s all over the place will hurt though.

I have no problem with a little more wordiness in a series of cut and paste lines if all trickiness goes away in exchange.