Friendliness is partly in the eye of the beholder. You never were the kind of beginner that Casey's article was meant to improve the treatment of. You may have asked dumb questions, but you had years of technical experience before Perl and so would not take issue with terse answers that would be issues for many beginners. You may not have known the Perl answers, but you knew geek culture. There were certain common issues that you simply were not going to run into.

Friendliness, like beauty, is partly in the eye of the beholder. Certainly as a beholder, Casey is on the sensitive side. Which I thing is a good thing in someone pointing out potential problems. For instance while we were one of the friendlier communities out there then, there were issues that grated on him.

I'd also estimate more influence for that article than you would. Particularly when you add in the follow-up discussions here and elsewhere.

An incidental point. Casey was not just talking about p5p when he cited problems. As discussion at PerlMonks as Ambassadors and elsewhere makes clear, he was primarily concerned about issues with other online communities, including PerlMonks. That p5p does not help beginners is not an issue because it is not supposed to. That sites which are supposed to help beginners don't is a different issue.