Perl is a very nice language. It's a good language to quickly write tools and small programs in. It's an absolute bitch for large projects. And before anyone waves his hand telling about his 100k line program, 100k lines is peanuts. It's easy to make messy Perl programs.
Large projects have a few good developers, but lots of mediocry and lousy coders doing grunt work.
Perl is like a Arabian horse. The winner of the pack, but only in the hands of an excellent rider. But often, it's not about finishing the race. It's getting there, safely. And other horses might not be as fast, and they look ugly, but they won't bolt.