It's funny how things come full circle. I had the impression that PHP was developed for exactly the reasons the poster listed, although it seems the real history is somewhat different.

In any case, people seem to believe that PHP is a simpler, safer Perl for Web development and PHP is certainly a simplified Perl in syntax.

Juerd's plp appears to be an attempt to adapt Perl to have all the purported advantages of PHP, but it's real Perl.