I agree with what I believe is the spirit of this post.

Even if I'm not an expert in a language, the code should be written clearly enough that when it says

$x = function($a, $b);
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a reasonably intelligent person can correctly understand that 'function' is acting on $a and $b to produce result $x, for example. Then go find out what 'function' does.

If a reasonably intelligent person can't even get that from the code without knowledge of all sorts of arcane idiosyncracies of the language, then we mustn't be surprised when IT managers reject Perl with that tired old refrain about it being unreadable

Perl's 'beauty' may just be it's own downfall.