I noticed that MJD has recently updated the slides for his Regular Expression Mastery talk (could this be what you saw at YAPC?), and despite having changed several slides, this one is still a part of persentation set, so presumably, he thinks /o still has some value.
Examine what is said, not who speaks.
"Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham
"When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong." -Richard Buckminster Fuller
If I understand your problem, I can solve it! Of course, the same can be said for you.