Is modern PHP really that bad? I kind of think it makes a lot of sense in a world where almost everything, even major government IT systems, are basically java/.net on the backend and some JavaScript MVVM framework on the client.

I know a guy who works with laravel, and we’ve teased him so much about PHP over the years, because PHP. The truth is, that his backend is actually more suited for the modern world than what we currently run. .Net core is getting to where it’s competitive, but it’s still a bitch to build something like a mixed asp mvc and Vue components app, which is truly effective/productive alternative to MVVM clients or jquery/Ajax for smaller projects.