I think that PHP isn't that bad for some use cases. What I really disliked about PHP as a developer was how much control the host has over tweaking the runtime;

I think that PHP isn't that bad for some use cases. What I really disliked about PHP as a developer was how much control the host has over tweaking the runtime; this can be"problematic" in some shared hosting setups. However, I'm also a bit of a hypocrite here because I worked for a hosting company, and also loved that feature. So, I think in the context of something like a container (or vps/dedicated) it can work well. I think PHP gets a lot of hate because it used to be a nightmare. I know friends who still use it, and they claim it's a day and night experience from the olden days. It probably wouldn't be my first choice for a project, but I probably wouldn't groan either, if I had to reach for it now