With respect to scripting languages on the Windows platform, Perl gives a person more options than VBScript and JScript (even with WScript). For administrators and DBAs, there's a lot of flexibility with going with Perl. As for ad hoc access, I agree, this doesn't tend to be something we allow the normal person to do. However, when we want a quick script to pull something out of a database or insert some info, we may not go through the trouble of building out the full security model because the risk is relatively small.

Also, Win32-ODBC (replaced the :: with a - to avoid the smily) is kind of the "entry point" into database access with Perl. There are better options available, I just haven't gotten around to writing about them. One example is the following from SQL Server MVP Erland Sommarskog:

Win32::SqlServer

Also, check out the book Real World SQL Server Administration with Perl

SQL Server MVP Linchi Shea gives a whole book of uses for Perl with SQL Server.