Thanks for this gentle and insightful response. Posts like this are one of the things that set PerlMonks apart as a site where people (even lazy people) are patiently taught to fish rather than being given a quick meal. Not that responses like Where's my pony? aren't funny, but I suspect some readers don't understand the humor and chalk them up as monks being spitefully mean.
As someone who has occasionally been unsure about whether a question had 'enough Perl' in it to justify a SoPW post, I appreciate your analysis.
No good deed goes unpunished. -- (attributed to) Oscar Wilde