I think the problem is that many people don't really grasp all the concepts of Perl5 (I know so many programmers at the company I work for who fall into this category...) so they're scared of what Perl6 might bring along.

But those are not the types that read the Apocalypses anyway.
Then there are those who know Perl5 well and are content with their possibilities. They are probably best off using that part of the language they know. Then there shouldn't be the need to learn more (except details, but hey those can even change in maint-releases in Perl5).

And then there's us.
I'm not content. I want to do more with less (syntactic hassle that is). I like to see theoretically desireable features in Perl6 because I'm missing some of them, or don't know some and would like to try them out.
Without turning to some exotic language I can't find support for, and no application at hand.
I know a couple of people that are like me: Try those sick things because they're there to play with.
I learned quite a lot by just doing stuff I didn't grasp when I began playing and then gradually getting the hang of that.

Of course it's a problem if that's the only way of learning one is capable of, but I find it's one of the most effective ways there are.

To people who don't grasp error messages caused by using concepts they don't understand, I like to quote MJD to: "Well, if you don't know what it does, why did you put in your program?".

If they want to know I always have the time to explain.

Over lunch or a decent malt. On weekends, too.

janx