Well, that line was pulled from a more complex script, that is far easier to do in Perl, than something like bash shell. For instance, what if you were automating writing the tarballs to a cd/dvd, or transferring it over a socket to another location, forking the work off, etc. Additionally, file and directory operations are soooo much easier with Perl, than shell, especially if you are used to Perl and abhor shell syntax.

So....it is often better to use Perl , and run the occaisional command thru system/backtick/pipe, and have the full power of Perl available when needed for things shell dosn't do well.