I do not understand specifically what Java/WebSphere and their ilk bring to my table that I can't do with Perl/CPAN/Catalyst/Apache/Perlmonks and for about $10000 and several Maalox less?
Support and a single point of contact / responsibility. Have a problem/question about WebSphere you call IBM. Have a problem with a framework built from 40 different CPAN modules you call?
Of course this doesn't mean that Perl isn't used in the Enterprise. Lots of companies from Amazon to Barclays Bank rely on Perl for their day-to-day operations.
I guess, I am musing about other monks' thoughts about "Perl (5|6) Enterprise Environment (P5EE)", "Enterprise Perl Pods (EPP)", and "Perl Struts" or "Perl on Rails" or "Perl on Rollerblades." Do we need one? Why don't we have one? Maybe we have one but it is disguised like the proletariat!
We don't have one because most of us don't need one to get our job done.
It doesn't get done by somebody else because it would be a heck of a lot of work. To have any affect on the people that prefer WebSphere it would have to be supported by an organisation that looks vaguely reliable. So it would need to be adopted by an IBM, or somebody would need to set up something like JBoss. Neither of them being terribly easy tasks.