That would not test PHP installed correctly at all, just the webserver unless you run it from the console. The whole point was to test that the language is working correctly.
That's what I meant with "unless you run it from the console". But since the purpose with PHP is usually to run it on a webserver, you want to try that it actually works with the webserver.
Ah, okay. The context in which I was sharing that was about verboseness, "extra ceremony", and "priorities of the language designers". It meant something specific in that context.
Though you could still test that it's working in a webserver, since if it came from php rather than just the webserver, it would have some additional headers like X-Powered-By.