i've been building web-based software since 1998, when I had to manually parse http requests on stdin (and read headers from env variables) in a C application running as a cgi-bin plugin, remembering to end the stream with two \n characters. i (a) know what i am doing and (b) am super-glad i don't have to parse a lot of jank to get to the interesting parts of the code.
every approach has weaknesses. I'm pretty sure there's tradeoffs everywhere: ergonomics vs speed, security vs inclusivity, etc. I'm also pretty sure it's uncool to make implications about my mental health in public.
Like the person you are replying to, I've been developing web apps since the 1990's (1997 in my case).
I'm unconvinced that 514 is crazy.
In fact, the only unusual thing I see there is that the author knows that number.
Back in then 1990's PHP was very popular. To use it, you had to compile it yourself, which involved compiling Apache 1.3 with modules. There were also various image libraries, font libraries etc. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the dependency tree of that included hundreds of libraries.
every approach has weaknesses. I'm pretty sure there's tradeoffs everywhere: ergonomics vs speed, security vs inclusivity, etc. I'm also pretty sure it's uncool to make implications about my mental health in public.