I think what you're looking for is this: https://metacpan.org/pod/Google::ProtocolBuffers::Dynamic

Some people would consider that a good thing.

I assume you're saying it's a good thing there's no reasonable protobuf support? The problem is I have access to data I'd like to manipulate, but it's in protobuf, so my options are:

a) somehow convince Google to let me access Nest data through a proper API

b) get a different thermostat

c) magically get the perl protobuf libraries to actually work

d) write just enough protobuf parsing (and possibly generating) to read my data, and curse

e) use another language to parse the data (ugh)

(I guess you could like to throw out 20 years of experience)