[CM30]

I think the reasons to still use WordPress and PHP at this point are really a mix of a few things:

1. It's very easy to install for an inexperienced person, which is a pro shared by every PHP script you can imagine. If you're making a product meant to be run on shared hosting servers or aimed at a non technical audience, you do not want to have to say 'here's how to use the command line and here's how to set up SSH keys'.

2. So many other sites use it (especially news/blog sites) that using it makes things easier for new writers or other non technical people you want to contribute content to the service.

3. If you're part of a very small agency, aren't particularly interested in the programming side or want to get something done that can be done with a few plugins and a free theme and don't want to reinvent the wheel, it can work fine there too.

Yes, it's probably not recommended for those with significant software engineering/web development expertise, and there are certainly pain points for those in those situations, but I think the key thing to remember is that its ideal audience is a much less technical one with limited hosting options and a need for easy installation over code quality.

[wildmindwriting]

I wanted to add a number 4 to your list and that is the user experience to the client. I work in a digital agency and our main focus is on WordPress (after coming from the start-up world, this is sometimes painful for me). But, the ubiquity of WordPress and how consistent the software has been over the years, it is a no-brainer decision for clients.

Plus, with the ability to create your own REST endpoints and pipe that into js, it's been pretty nice to work with. We've built some great data vizs with WP, Vue, SVGs...

[news_to_me]

You're right, of course. I suppose I'm just frustrated that there isn't a similar widely-used solution available for non-technical folks that also doesn't feel painful for Web devs to extend.

I have a lot of reservations about Wordpress's hook-based architecture, and I get frustrated with old design decisions like the parameter order for `array_map` and `array_filter`, etc. etc. Sometimes you just need to vent.

Anyway, thanks for the perspective :)