But Perl doesn't have a 'file' as datatype. Perl has filehandles. Just like it has hashes. You can have multiple filehandles, and actions on them don't interfere. You can have multiple hashes, and actions on them don't interfere either.

And while it's true that you can open multiple handles to the same file, when was the last time you saw a program opening multiple handles on STDIN or on a socket, to name a few common streams programs read from?