I wish this claim wouldn't come up in every Perl article because that's a big part of Perl's perception problem. P6 is entering its 15th year of advocates claiming that it'll be ready in "about a year and a half".
If that claim is true this time, then it puts off people doing interesting things with Perl now as they figure they'll wait for a successor to look at it.
If that claim isn't true, then it puts off people doing interesting things with Perl now as the claim will change to be "about a year and a half from now" in another 18 months.