>>But is that really unique to Perl these days?
Yes. Scripting powers of Perl are unmatched.
>>It may have been true in the mid-1990s, but things have changed since then.
Hardly anything has changed. No language has taken scripting that seriously. You are likely confused between dynamic languages and scripting langauges. There is a big difference. If you haven't noticed, well then that's the whole point behind Perl. You really need to use it to see what it is.
>>Python and Ruby both have a much cleaner syntax
Its not about having a cleaner syntax. Making it easy to learn, only means the complexity is left to the programmer to handle now. Either way some one needs to handle the complexity, Its either the programmer or the language. If you make the language simpler, the complexity burden shifts to the programmer.
>>yet still offer very comparable functionality, excellent portability, ample standard and third-party libraries, excellent documentation, supportive communities, great regex support, and basically everything else that Perl offers.
Python takes great care to purposefully avoid offering every thing that Perl offers.
>>Since everything positive about Perl is also offered by alternative languages today, and those alternatives are themselves much better than Perl in some respects
You will have to substantiate that point with some evidence.
>>Perl seems like a less and less enticing option each day.
That is being told since what? 1988?