I think you're focusing a little too much on the whole Web thing. Perl got a boost with the popularity of the Web, but was already in wide use as a sysadmin tool (it's more than 15 years old). And I believe that most Perl stuff is not out in the open, but doing its work quietly to keep lots of things going without "public knowledge".

PHP on the other hands, was meant as a Web application language from the beginning. So it's perfectly logical that things made with PHP have higher visibility. Also, I think it's a matter of the right thing on the right time. PHP was there as a relatively simple and specialized tool for creating dynamic websites just when it became feasible for "normal" people to host a website with a hosting provider. Add that to the fact that it's easier for hosting providers to support PHP than it is to support Perl it's not really strange that PHP got a bit more attention as a Web development language.

Again, it's a matter of perception. PHP is used in a visible way, but Perl is used in a lot more things than just building websites. As for other languages like Python and Ruby, I think it's only good to have diversity and hence, cross-pollination. And once you know a scripting language, it isn't that hard to learn the other. Maybe the syntax is different (whitespace is significant, which isn't as hard to get used to as most people think) and the focus lies somewhere else (in Ruby everything is an object).

Like languages adapt and grow, try to adapt and grow on a personal and professional level.

Arjen