I really don't see what makes php a spaghetti mess. Spaghetti code is a skill issue, not a language issue
What standards did Wordpress set a few years ago? Huge, disjoint sets of files spread throughout the themes folders. How much time does it take me to understand which of these files is causing the error?
Do you still upload your code via FTP directly to the web server? Do you still reset the code cache for the PHP in order for that new code to become live? Well, I am going to be happy when your skill set is made redundant, because you are getting paid to know all of these quirks and they are not making the industry any better.
You can write good code in _anything_. You could even write it on paper and then expense that to a person working for $0.01/hour to execute it. The question is whether the liability of your methods is lower than the liability of other methods.
PHP is essentially the dinosaur from the times when SEO consultants made loads of money. They are still using PHP because they never knew anything better and the scale of the industry is enormous, so it's slow to change.
It's pretty rare that this is even an option, since no one in their right mind would set up an FTP server with access to anything important.
SFTP? I don't see why not. No need to make things more complex than is necessary.
I don't remember any particular problems with code caching when I did PHP development, though maybe you use a different caching tool than I did. Also, Wordpress is its own beast, and is generally reviled by most everyone, expecially PHP programmers.
You are trying to argue definitions (SFTP vs FTP when FTP just means “any file transfer protocol”) instead of arguing that uploading any amount of files by any protocol that are immediately picked up by the interpreter introduces nondeterministic behaviour of the website where the users accessing your website only see a subset of the files you were trying to upload.
Doesn’t that just reinforce one’s confidence in the fact that PHP developers are generally quite amature in nature?
Do you not see the comments in this specific thread? The guy a bit higher up the chain thinks my issue is with "FTP vs SFTP", rather than "the version of the files at a particular moment in time".
He doesn't even understand why a partial view of the files could be an issue.
And the general sentiment in PHP is that "you can change any file separately, by editing in online on the server - and that is a good thing".