I understand where you're coming from. And you're not alone. Alot of people have the same mixed reaction of fear and anticipation. But the changes really aren't that major. Perl 6 is kind of like "Perl with tabasco" and you can (mostly) skip the tabasco if you want.

I think this is one advantage of the Perl 6 design strategy: every change, every development is public. By the time the design is finished and a Perl 6 interpreter is production-ready, most people will be familiar with the changes. It won't be strange and new, but old and comfortable, as easy as print. I already find myself typing along in Perl 5 and trying to stick in Perl 6 features and syntax. Then I pause, frustrated, and have to "back-translate" (maybe I should write a p62p5 translator :). Others will be infected similarly. And those that aren't will have a large group of more knowledgeable users to help them, just like they do now. Do you remember who first introduced you to the joy of map? Users around the world will find it's exactly the same with given, etc. It's a cool feature they never knew they had before, but now that they know it, they'll use it every chance they get.

"You can do things that change everything without changing anything." -- Brian Ingerson on Perl 6, YAPC::NA::2001