Legacy uses and a smattering of personal preference.
Perl was hugely productive in its day, when alternatives were either non-existent or extremely nascent (Python and Ruby) or things like C, C++, Java, or Bash. You can probably imagine how writing Perl was fun for script-y tasks when compared to doing it in those languages. So, it has a large legacy presence and isn't going anywhere.
Plus there's a few people for whom it is muscle memory, and IME muscle memory can easily beat out language niceness/appropriateness for productivity in personal things.
Disclaimer: I was born in the early 90's so I was learning long division during Perl's glory days. My perspective is mostly from working in a large Perl codebase that was born in those years and talking with the people who chose Perl for said codebase.
Perl was hugely productive in its day, when alternatives were either non-existent or extremely nascent (Python and Ruby) or things like C, C++, Java, or Bash. You can probably imagine how writing Perl was fun for script-y tasks when compared to doing it in those languages. So, it has a large legacy presence and isn't going anywhere.
Plus there's a few people for whom it is muscle memory, and IME muscle memory can easily beat out language niceness/appropriateness for productivity in personal things.
Disclaimer: I was born in the early 90's so I was learning long division during Perl's glory days. My perspective is mostly from working in a large Perl codebase that was born in those years and talking with the people who chose Perl for said codebase.