Perl more common than vi? The study you’re remembering probably didn’t include POSIX utilities.
$ docker run --rm ubuntu:22.04 bash -c 'command -v ex; command -v ed; command -v vi; command -v perl;'
/usr/bin/perl
and the same result for "debian:stable"---
edit: I just realized that's because apt is _written in_ perl, but tomato, tomahto, and it may very well be that they picked perl for that same universal-binary reason