It looks to me like the thing most of the people you are complaining about forget to always use strictures (use strict; use warnings; - see The strictures, according to Seuss).

They should also learn not to use $a and $b in general use ($foo and $bar are good for example code).

Learning to use the three parameter form of open, lexical variables for file handles and checking the result of the open would seem to be a higher level of sophistication. However using comprehensible and consistent indentation should be attainable for them, even if just by using Perl tidy.