In all seriousness, it just works when your building for the web (unless it doesn't.)
Is it often messy? Absolutely.
Is it sometimes a bit verbose? Sure.
Can it sometimes be like laying a snare, only to accidentally step back into it? Yes, but it's not alone, just seems to make it a little easier to occur.
It doesn't have to be that way, it just tends to be like that.
I prefer Python and Scheme, but I don't enjoy them when it comes to working with web development. There are frameworks that help with this, but it's still a pain. PHP is quick and easy, in that area and works 95% of the time in about 99% places you stick it.
I've been trying for years to embrace Python in web development, but it just annoys me during the setup. PHP gets out of the way, in that area, and let's me go.
If you had a bunch of influential yet hopelessly ignorant people writing blog posts about how awful that language is and possibly devaluing your skill set because of it, you'd want to correct things as well.
The fact that the majority of complaints about PHP as a language boil down to your comment says A LOT about the ignorance of most of the complainers.
Sure. It says PHP is popular enough and mainstream enough so that people feel attacking it would not be pointless and would bring them some clicks. And it says there are arguments in defense of it - otherwise there would be nobody to defend it.
In all seriousness, it just works when your building for the web (unless it doesn't.)
Is it often messy? Absolutely. Is it sometimes a bit verbose? Sure. Can it sometimes be like laying a snare, only to accidentally step back into it? Yes, but it's not alone, just seems to make it a little easier to occur.
It doesn't have to be that way, it just tends to be like that.
I prefer Python and Scheme, but I don't enjoy them when it comes to working with web development. There are frameworks that help with this, but it's still a pain. PHP is quick and easy, in that area and works 95% of the time in about 99% places you stick it.
I've been trying for years to embrace Python in web development, but it just annoys me during the setup. PHP gets out of the way, in that area, and let's me go.