[harbud]

I agree on several of your points. CPAN is kind of meh right now, since Python/Ruby/node.js are quickly catching up (or have passed it, even). You can quite easily find libraries existing in other languages and not in CPAN.

For me it now boils down to: sunk cost (if you're already familiar with Perl, it makes sense to keep doing it in Perl) and some features that Perl currently really excels at (variable scoping, regex integration, Unicode).