I'm not disagreeing with you, but the first Perl project I started in 1999 in my dorm room had its latest, major release two days ago. I've never thought of maintaining your own Perl code as impossible. And I'm no wizard.
I've honestly wondered if maintaining someone else's forgotten Perl code, modernizing it, and getting it so that'll it'll run for another x years isn't all that bad of a niche job.