There was a lot of tension relative to where PHP would be going, but php7 got it out of the tunnel (in no small parts because of hack, as you mention, buy not o

There was a lot of tension relative to where PHP would be going, but php7 got it out of the tunnel (in no small parts because of hack, as you mention, buy not only). Some companies diversified before that, in particular moving to nodejs for instance, but others took php from there as it got a lot of attention again, and php8 didn't disappoint either. There's still a ton of stuck that could be fixed, and php will always be talked down in some way or another but I don't think it's in a bad position as it is now. There's pretty significant code bases newly built on php right now, even if it's not making the headlines.