[unity1001]

> I haven't deployed a site on that dinosaur in over a decade at this rate

That's why your memory of Apache is a dinosaur itself: Apache has been constantly improving over the years. The advantage that Nginx had in performance was gone with Apache introducing event mpm. Now event mpm + any backend can provide you the same performance with Nginx, but with ALL the benefit of the gigantic module ecosystem that Apache has.

Like another commenter said, merely WordPress would constitute around ~50% of the web, and it uses Apache. Even if there is a nginx proxy cache at the front (as is so common with run of the mill web hosts that use cPanel), the Apache in the backend is irreplaceable - modifying .htaccess file is critical to many !very! important plugins in the WP ecosystem that people use to run their businesses. And if a web host does not provide for that, they remain gimped. You can use Nginx for WordPress, but then you will have to get non-technical users to add mod rewrite rules through a web panel or something. Good luck explaining what a 'rewrite rule' is to a non-technical user who just wants to launch an ecommerce site for his flower shop. Less, any regex that needs to be used for some specific rules...