If a bank gave away the information they hold on me, I'd face the risk of losing all my property.

If PerlMonks gives away all the information they hold on me, the worst thing that can possibly happen is that someone might pretend to be me on PerlMonks.

I really don't think the two scenarios are comparable.

Yes, storing passwords as plaintext was stupid. But let's get some perspective here. "Outrage" is a strange reaction to the leaking of passwords for a simple discussion forum; would it really affect your life significantly if someone else posted as Zen on PerlMonks? And anyone who was reusing the same password for more serious purposes elsewhere was being just as stupid.