Perl is a he. MVPs started way back in early game forum days. Perl was made a TS/CS MVP in Nov of 2019 and the is the newest of any MVP for WoW. He most certainly was not part of the program when it came out.
All other MVPs in CS/TS have been there many years (2013 for me), and the Community MVPs were last brought in during 2018.
What I will agree with, is that Perl is awesome and a huge help to many folks.