I don't think that Perl is easy compared to many other languages, and I certainly don't think Perl is easy to
learn.
But I don't think it's relevant when judging the usefulness
of a language. It's easier to learn to ride a bike that it
is to learn to drive a car. That doesn't mean people ditch
their cars and replace them by bikes. Just because something
is easier to learn, or it's not as rich as Perl doesn't mean
it is as useful. (But that doesn't mean that something that
is more useful is harder to learn).
Abigail