Among the contenders were ASP.NET, JSP and Perl (mod_perl + Apache::ASP).

All of them have their "pros" and "cons", so it was no easy choice for anyone.

You mentioned some specific "cons" regarding ASP.NET and JSP, but you didn't have anything similar relating to Perl. What, in particular, did your discussions and research reveal that were "cons" against the mod_perl approach? (Or did I miss something?) Was it just the bosses thinking that Perl is not "an established technology with substantial mindshare"?

There's nothing wrong with preaching to the choir, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who comes to PM to keep an eye out for traps and shortfalls in our chosen toolset, and pointing out issues in Perl were considered to be problems would be a useful service (especially if they were technical issues).

Still, thanks (++!) for a very good read.