I also started off with PHP, about 20 years ago. Soon after, I started working with C# and had the same feelings you had about Java - code was so much more read

I also started off with PHP, about 20 years ago. Soon after, I started working with C# and had the same feelings you had about Java - code was so much more readable, maintainable and refactorable, and so much less buggy. I've never looked back from static typing, and am put off from using languages I'd otherwise be interested in (like Elixir).