Most of the time when accessing data from a NamedList, what you'll be doing is using get() to retrieve another NamedList, and doing so over and over until you reach the final level, where you'll actually retrieve the value you want.
I propose adding a method to NamedList which would do all that heavy lifting for you. I created the following method for my own code. It could be adapted fairly easily for inclusion into NamedList itself. The only reason I did not include it as a patch is because I figure you'll want to ensure it meets all your particular coding guidelines, and that the JavaDoc is much better than I have done here: