This is a nice overview. I've had mixed success in ports contributions. If the app you're packaging is "normal" then the whole thing is pretty reasonable. If the thing you're doing involves 7 bajillion CPAN packages and cross dependencies with something large and complex, you're going to have a bad time.
Overall, I'd say the process of making ports is slightly easier than packaging on some other platforms, except when you encounter exceptions--which can happen with software written with an expectation of Linux.
There's also the expectation that ports have all been vetted for security issues and the like. That's the tradeoff that ordinary users see -- not as many packages have been ported, but they're safer. I don't always think that this is true, but trying to abide by it makes porting a bit more difficult.
Overall, I'd say the process of making ports is slightly easier than packaging on some other platforms, except when you encounter exceptions--which can happen with software written with an expectation of Linux.