And did you forget about slash? It still exists and is maintained. Even PHP itself was originally written in mod_perl.

I didn't say you can't write good stuff in mod_perl, but rather it's slower and harder. Using perl as a template language is simply using the wrong tool for the job, that's all.

And I say this having done both.

Think about the site you wrote: Did you have to spend a lot of energy and time writing modules to make handling HTML easier? Did you write functions to deal with form input?

Was the site successful because you essentially wrote an HTML handling framework?

Your argument is that PHP is better than Perl for web development because PHP is a better suited for use directly as a templating language? That may be true, but I don't think it's particularly relevant given the long existence of templating engines for both. The PHP developers I know don't use PHP as their templating language anymore. They use Twig, Smarty, Blade, etc...

I have been in an environment, where there is some legacy Perl scripts that run, everyone is terrified to update it even tho it's a PHP shop. I looked at the code thinking it would be a nightmare, but no. It's actually good clean code. So it's not nonsense, some folks absolutely refuse to engage in new adventures. They would be ready to hack all over it if it was node, but Perl? won't touch with a 10 feet pole.