Sorry, but originally it was meant as the replacement (and I was physically present at its announcement at OSCON in 2000). It wasn't until 2008 when the "sister language meme" was generally accepted, that the paths diverged instead of being sequential.
Ok, multi-lang virtual machines wanted to replace Perl5 binary.
But: :)
- multi-lang vm's are proof that v5 syntax wasn't mean to be eradicate at all cost
- there was no plan or push to instantly obsolote, uninstall and deny of Perl 5 usage
- I'm sure there was a conviction that some Perl 5 installations will stay for long time period into the future. Or as long as possible ~~ forever.
So it wasn't like Python 2.7 replacement. And plans even assumed continuation. And some from the start wanted to have both langs :)
To counter that, Inline::Perl5 (https://raku.land/cpan:NINE/Inline::Perl5) was developed. It gives you access to 99.9% of Perl's functionality transparently, such as being able to subclass Perl classes in Raku, and vice-versa.
Perl 6 was meant as the bravest experiment with C-like syntax in 30(?) years - attempt to nicely mix few programming paradigms and styles. And that we really have in Raku.
They was talking "Perl is dead" but it never was and isn't. Maybe it looked as clinically death with out of body experience into ideal language heavens but since decade or so it is back. Solid and backward compatible as always.
And there was problem for some with "parallel language versions" marketing so Perl 6 was renamed to Raku. The harder question was "Which one I need to learn ?", but it is newbie programmer question, you need to know many languages because it is standard programmer life experience. And it is XXI century and many technologies are around.
On the other hand Python usage is scientifically researched as being a "write abandonware" language :)