The criterion for relevance is not just technology as such.

Probably (I don't really know to be honest) you could do a lot of things that people use python's numpy & pandas for with perl's PDL, but then EVERYBODY uses numpy & pandas and if I want to learn about it I can even choose among several books if I want, while there is not a single book about PDL.

So on a pure technical level perl may be in contention, but in reality it isn't.

Python seems to be eating R's lunch these times and Perl is not even a contender anymore.

It was not inevitable to play out like this, to me this is (in a way) Perl vs PHP all over again.