I, personally, acknowledge almost no relationship between XP and one's ability as a Perl coder. Admittedly, often higher XP'ers seem to have a reasonable amount of Perl skill, but then there are others for whom XP/skill is an inverse relationship.

I've always found it odd when anyone tries to point out this relationship as well. There's nothing too "magical" about it: XP is essentially a reflection of the contributions one has made to Perl Monks, whether through technical help, inspiring/interesting thoughts or merely showing off. :)

If you want to get a good idea of someone's technical ability follow their writings!