I think it's a bit unfair to suggest that all jQuery plugins have problems (I use the validation plugin and it is excellent for catching mistakes before a user submits a form and starts the backend processing). I see them as being in the same boat as WordPress plugins - there are some which are well maintained and up to date, and then a huge pile of others which were quickly hacked together and then never looked at again.
It's the same with CPAN, PEAR and anything else where you allow users to contribute additional separate components which aren't maintained by the core developers.
I don't know if it is because of the javacript implementations being historically so distinct among themselves, and I maybe weego exaggerated a little bit. But that seems to be true to some extent among javascript libraries.
I'm not a very a very experienced javascript developer, just the occasional user, but the malfunctioning third party script syndrom is still out there on the javascript world. Sure the situation might be better than in 1997 but still...
I wouldn't say CPAN is comparable, the standard is higher and the modules work without glitches in most of the cases.
The comparison with CPAN was more to do with the abandoned modules - if you go onto CPAN you'll find lots of modules which were created years ago and then never updated, but they still show up in search results.
It's the same with CPAN, PEAR and anything else where you allow users to contribute additional separate components which aren't maintained by the core developers.