There are quite a few Perl shops in LA writing new code and more than a few maintaining apps that have been around for a while. Lacking the sex appeal of Node and Go (or whatever the next hotness will be) doesn't mean something isn't relevant.

Why build something in Perl? The same reasons you'd write something in Python, Ruby, C#, Java, etc:

- Mature tooling - Excellent library support - Code samples written for relevant projects by vendors for their libraries [0] - Experts available

Given the fact that there are a lot of good options, it's probably best to factor in, "Do I like it?" and/or "Would someone pay me for it?". For all the above the answer is yes.

Additionally, Perl 6 is more or less a new language. If it scratches enough developer's itches, it'll likely take off on its own. It's mostly getting flack due to taking forever and Perl 5's perceived lack of sex appeal. I think if you frame your question with languages like Lua, Haskel, Schema, etc you'll find a good set of answers from users in each community.

[0] https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/...