What I got from mingling with the Perl community: The single most repeated advice (indeed Larry Wall himself has said it repeatedly), is that one should use whatever tool will allow one to carry out the task at hand and generally get things done.

In that sense, Perl never had you because Perl probably isn't interested in "having" anyone. Maybe helping out people carry out their work, but not having them. It is about getting things done, without trying to be the next big thing in CS. At least that's what I'd like to believe.

If Python helps you carry out your work better, you should most assuredly and definitely use Python. Ditto with PHP, Go, and all the rest. And Perl.