I think another difficulty is that a substantial portion of the "good" content out there is probably created by monks. So we have kind of a conflict of interest if we start handing out awards.

Well, that's kinda too much of an assumption IMVHO. Speaking of which I wonder how many monks also spend some time on other renown online Perl communities: I know some, but I only have a partial view of the thing. However as an issue it's OT here. But now that you make me think of it, it may constitute the subject of a poll suggestion. Whoa! The second in just few days...