Yes I strongly agree with this (despite my dubious past).

I remember when writing The Lighter Side of Perl Culture (Part III): Obfu how determined I was to create the right impression. Accordingly, before launching into the fun, recreational pastime of obfu, I started on a cautionary note, emphasizing that:

1. Perl is indeed a fine language for writing maintainable systems.
2. Obfuscation has no place in production code.
3. Obfuscation started long before Perl did. This was clearly demonstrated in the History section, which notes that the Obfuscated C competitions started long before Perl did. (Though it was perhaps unfortunate that Tim (Toady) happened to triumph in one of these early IOC contests ;-).