Nothing really useful to add to the conversation. It was just this line that struck me as funny.
Most people ... don't really use Perl, although they use things that use Perl. Most people directly use the water, electricity, and other things I included in my list.
Ok, water I'll concede, but electricity? In many years of corporate work I have NEVER seen anyone stick their fingers into the mains to get their shot of electricity for the day. (Not on purpose, at least.) The Perl/electricity analogy may be better than you initially thought. You don't absolutely need it to get useful work done, but it sure makes things easier.