For the sake of maintainability though I think I will avoid using this crafty method.

It is not at all clear to me why you think it need be a maintenance problem. Just wrap it over in a function something like:

sub getWithStatus {
    my $url = shift;
    my $content;
    open my $RAM, '>', \$content;
    my $stdoutsaved = select;
    select *$RAM;
    my $status = getprint( $url );
    select $stdoutsaved;
    close $RAM;
    return $status, $content;
}

...

my( $status, $content ) = getWithStatus( $url );
if( $status ne RC_OK ) {
    die "Get $url failed with HTTP status: $status";
}
...
[download]

Good point.

For some reason I envisioned just pasting that inline. Obviously it is appropiate to put in a function.