[minusf]

php's success is tightly connected with LAMP, namely apache mod_php and mysql/mariadb.

it wouldn't be hard to put together the base of wordpress in python on top of django. but hosting companies for decades cared only about mod_php and had no one click uwsgi/fastcgi solutions.

although this still doesnt answer why wordpress became king of the hill in the php ecosystem. was textpattern/drupal/joomla/etc that much worse/harder to use?

in the end wp just looked a tiny bit more professional and an easier name to remember for the masses. this technical dept will be paid for many years to come.

[cricalix]

Anecdotally, yes Joomla and Drupal were much harder to work with and get them to look "nice".