What is an "HN" type? HN has smart, dumb, and in-between people of every variety. That's the byproduct you get of encouraging curiosity. I don't think HN was even around in any sort of prominence when Perl died.

I stopped using Perl because my egg drop bots got laborious along with my expect scripts. They were novel early on, but maintaining them became something of a chore I wasn't inclined to do anymore. Other things started to do that better.

Personally, I think Python won because it's syntax was much more readable. It had nothing to do with technical merits. DX is a strong subliminal motivator.