Yes, writing maintainable code is very important, and it is not a task that perl makes easy, however it is not a reason to discard half the tools in the tool box. In the event that your code starts to get to difficult for some one new to understand, include a couple helpful comments, and if they still can't get it then maybe they aren't ready to work and that project yet and should be put to work on something simpler until they are ready. You can't expect a freshman year physics major to maintain a nuclear power plant.