I know there's a lot of ill will toward Perl 6 out there in the community...

There was a lot of ill will toward Perl 6 out there in the community, and there may still be some ill will today, but much less than, say, two years ago, because the Perl 6 team has finally delivered something more or less up to the expectations, something that is great anyway.

I am personally enthusiastic about Perl 6 (and I have written several tutorials and articles about it in French over the past two years or so -- all together about 300 pages of material), but I must say that there were some moments in the past where I was starting to have some serious doubts about Perl 6 going to go anywhere at the time, because it took so long to get out.

As for the rest of your post, I guess that I would need to take the time to look at the Haskell lens module you're referring to in order to really understand what your posts are about. I haven't done that yet.