A few points.

perl should do more to discourage the use of

Perl doesn't, by design, discourage anything. This is why strict and warnings are not enabled by default, among else. Out-of-the-box Perl allows you to do many things that you shouldn't. It is your choice as a programmer of whether to use those or not. There are pragmas and modules (strict, warnings, taint mode, Perl::Critic) that can help you enforce those choices. But the language itself isn't one of them.

And while on the subject, "Considered Harmful" Essays are also Considered Harmful.