And killing Perl 5 in the process. If Perl would have kept going in its own pace and Perl 6 would have been named Rapture or Raku from day one, Perl would have been fine.

Nowadays when everyone and their dog (vcpkg) have a package system, it’s easy to overlook how magical CPAN was. A solution to the weirdest problem, just a package away.

CPAN and similar things like CTAN were simply phenomenal in a way that really is hard to explain today; since everything has it now.

It was a magical time.

If they hadn't done Perl 6 the way they did, it'd still be around. Perl 5 was fine but the impending doom gradually let it be overcome.