i think this is a cultural thing. ruby is at least as convenient to deal with regexes as perl, but we don't have the same kinds of problems. i think this is because in ruby, the culture is to use the hippest tool for the job. frankly, regular expressions aren't very hip. YAML or JSON is much more hip and therefore likely to fill that niche. Perl-users made regular expressions something that we all expect each other to know. Did they go too far? Seems that way (just like java-users obsession with introducing abstraction layers helped the programming community learn DP.)

Your point implies that exposing a powerful mechanism that is easily abused should be avoided. I disagree. I think this is a matter of culture and not "law".