CPAN is large and comprehensive but every time I've had to use it I've had to watch a minimum of 20 minutes of scrolling compilation
Have a look at cpanminus (http://search.cpan.org/dist/App-cpanminus/lib/App/cpanminus....). Its a lightweight and JFDI alternative to the default CPAN client.
Maybe it's a question of perl putting a lot of things in CPAN versus other languages putting more in the standard library?
Swings and roundabouts really because there is no definitive advantage in either approach.
Advantage in CPAN approach: Its more darwinian. Your libraries are more up-to-date (stdlibs often get stale)
Advantage in stdlib approach: Less dependencies. Batteries included out of the box.
After installing Perl first thing I do is load a few important CPAN modules (like Moose, AnyEvent, Coro, Devel::Repl, DBIx::Class) and then all your big loads are pretty much done.