I am sorry you lost your job.

Regarding your initial question though, when you were hired by the company, why did they hire you? was it your credentials and diplomas, previous work experience, abilities to lead, speak, etc. or was it a combination of those?

So what did they hire? an educated person, with experience and capabilities. The business hired that and they should use that in their marketing efforts. The more the business makes, the better it is with all involved with the business. I would guess that once you were hired and they asked you to write some Perl code, you didn't say, you didn't teach me Perl, so I cannot write any for you. They didn't teach you to speak or interact with others, but you probably did those things. They hired a package, you should not hesitate in bringing all the resources of your package to help your employer.