...at least pointing people towards a publicly available wheel and encouraging them to have a go at it.

I've no problem with people "pointing to and encouraging" the use of CPAN--I've even been known to do this myself surprisingly. I do take umbrage at being told that the "solution" to my problem is in doing something completely different to what i am trying to do (and about which I hadn't asked for advice) just so that I can utilise a CPAN module I have no interest in.

My re-invented solutions have caused noone any "wasted time, less functionality, and more bugs", nor made "Perl look bad", because I've not made any of them available on CPAN nor anywhere else.

The only module I've so far uploaded to CPAN, was withdrawn within 1 day. I uploaded it because 3 people seperately encouraged me to do so. I withdrew it because one person, who views I respect, suggested that it "polluted the namespace" because I had named it as a pragma, rather than deeply nesting it in some obscure namespace where it would never been seen. Reserving namespaces is well and good, but if they are never allowed to be used, then they become wasted space. C'est la vie!

As for the rest of my modules. I re-invent for my own learning purposes. As and when I have something that I think is of sufficient quality to warrent inclusion, I will do so.