The link you claim to be nonexistent is there, if you look for it. In 2e, the few NWPs which somehow relate to perception are all Wisdom-based (tracking and direction sense, for example), while Intelligence keeps those NWPs that relate to reasoning, learning and memorizing (which appear to be Intelligence's thing even these days). At some points, I get the impression that the 2e designers were just afraid of using the word "perception", so they used all kind of substitutes such as "awareness of one's surroundings" and "intuition" that, in the end, account for your character's ability to grasp relevant information through sensorial means. That may or may be enough for you. For myself, it's enough to prove that, while there was no perception stat properly, Wisdom was the nearest one.
Still, I agree that the role of stats changed with editions. I believe, though, that it was more a matter of making things clearer and more organized than creating new roles out of nothing. Wisdom as perception has been there in AD&D, even if some perception-related situations called for Intelligence (resistance to illusion magic is still related to Intelligence to some degree, even in 5e).