I don't get your issue with builtin utilities. The design philosophy of PHP is to include whatever common methods would otherwise be in a popular library. (PHP

I don't get your issue with builtin utilities. The design philosophy of PHP is to include whatever common methods would otherwise be in a popular library. (PHP actually began more as a library than as a language.) This differs from, eg, Python, but doesn't hurt. The decision not not to make methods on the objects, but to include everything in the main namespace (so array_walk instead of Array.walk or Array()->walk etc) is another function of the same philosophy. It may not fit your idea of cosmetics, but there is nothing wrong with it. On the other hand, I would love if PhP gained chainability ([].array_map.array_find()) and then the names would be a pain. If that ever happens there are solutions.