While your first two points are valid point for discussion, sarcasm included, what I was suggesting is that there are many modules available on CPAN (which may have XS under the hood) which provide easy to use interfaces for automating tasks. I believe that one of the reasons for Perl being "frequently used for automation" is that there are fairly easy to use (no C/XS knowledge required) modules for such tasks.

"So, CPAN isn't the whole answer of what makes"

If I understand you correctly, I agree, CPAN isn't a complete answer for the question "Why is perl so frequently used for automation?".