...which also have their problems, e.g. text encoding handling in Python 2.x was horrid and full of traps. This is better in 3.x, problem mostly solved. The same goes for many of the warts in PHP which have been fixed or are scheduled to be fixed in 8.1 and later. Given a choice between a world without PHP and one with it, warts and all, I choose the latter. Not because of its elegance or correctness or performance but because of its utility. In this respect it is a bit in the same situation as Bourne/Korn/Born_Again shell, languages which surely could be better in many ways but excel in just being there when you need them and for the purposes you need them.
The language at hand is often the best language for the job, just like that phone camera in your pocket is the best camera to snap that shot of whatever event you just happened upon. Sure, it would have been better if you could use a DSLR on a stand, shooting raw to be processed in some fancy tool but that DSLR and stand and tool generally complicate matters far more than they add in quality. Sometimes this is worth it, often it is not.
The language at hand is often the best language for the job, just like that phone camera in your pocket is the best camera to snap that shot of whatever event you just happened upon. Sure, it would have been better if you could use a DSLR on a stand, shooting raw to be processed in some fancy tool but that DSLR and stand and tool generally complicate matters far more than they add in quality. Sometimes this is worth it, often it is not.