> You can pretty much "do anything" in a straightforward generic way without having to learn some application specific language like PHP or through nginx/apache

> You can pretty much "do anything" in a straightforward generic way without having to learn some application specific language like PHP or through nginx/apache configuration files Not having to learn something like PHP? Do we not count learning C++? I would guess most people would agree learning PHP + Nginx is going to be a lot less complicated, which will be preferable for people just trying to build something. I'm not sure dropping down to such a low level is something most web developers will have to deal with. I think that you find it easy speaks more to an already existing familiarity with C++, not that it would be a path of less resistance.