The reason for the asymmetry between {MIN,} and {,MAX} is probably that there's a zero in perl, but Inf isn't generally supported.

The issue was raised not so long ago on p5p, it even caught old farts off guard. I don't think anyone recalled the reason why it does what it does. And people expressed the wish it would have been done otherwise in the past. Some have suggested a warning, but IIRC, nothing happened. It's unlikely the actual meaning is going to change. The advantages of not having to type a 0 don't out-weight the negative impact of potentially breaking code. It's one of the many things that with the benefit of hindsight would have been done differently.