Chromatic, your post deserves a well thought out response which, at the moment, I am too tired to properly compose. I will read this again and attempt to give it the justice that you so justly deserve. Please be patient with me.

UPDATE

I suspect that it is often the case that those who write the code at a company don't have as much control as they would wish for what platform is in use or how upgrades are scheduled. And while you might be justifiably perturbed about companies that use expense for a reason to not upgrade for a very long period of time, it is not unreasonable to go three years or so. (Yes, five is stretching it even for me, but I have seen it on more than one occasion.)

On the other hand, I would not be surprised to find employees of those companies contributing to CPAN in an effort to pay-it-forward. I know that I have tried, and have seen others do so at every company I have been associated with for the last 15 years.

Oh, we mustn't forget that in many cases it is simply that someone is following the age-old adage that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. :)