Try perltidy sometime ... Similar tools exist for all major scripting languages.

Additionally, I can do something with scripting tools I cannot do for any other language - look at how the add-ons I want to use are built ... should I care. I read Text::xSV and File::Temp. I don't read CGI or DBI. Why? I don't care about how the latter are implemented. I care very much how the former are. (Or, I have cared ... I might care about CGI at some future date.) Later, I might care how various rpms are put together, for which I can find the source code.

The point here is that with a minimally sufficient effort, I can learn how CGI is put together, with or without crazy Perl stuff. Without reverse engineering, I cannot do the same with similar tools in a compiled setting.

A better example might be that I can learn exactly how Mozilla is put together ... I can't do the same with IE. I probably never will ... but I can. Transparency doesn't have to be used to be effective.