I use Java, PHP, Django, GAE, Zope and have done some Rails development too. I happen to prefer the Python-based stacks because they are very elegant and don't have the irregular syntax that bothers me on Ruby (and that Rails exploits).
And yes, from all these, PHP is the one technology that has the ugliest syntax and the most ill-conceived ideas I have ever seen this side of FORTRAN 77. Very competent people write very elegant PHP code, but a lot of people who should never been allowed to use a text editor also write a lot of PHP code that should have never seen the light of day.
Your criticism fits the clueless developer stereotype so well, in fact, that hadn't you written several posts in this line, I would have dismissed this one as a failed attempt at humor.
So, here is my advice: PHP is not the end-all web language. Nor is Ruby and Rails. Learn more stuff. Learn, not only Rails, but Ruby - and do so deeply. Learn Perl. Understand RDBMSs are not the only way to save data and why text files may be a better idea. Also, try to do the SICP path (there are very good video lectures free to download and the book is available in HTML, ePub and PDF formats). You'll emerge a better programmer.
See you on the other side.
That and I already had a server set up that could take a lot of traffic, whereas our PHP servers? Not so much. So, for me, Django was the right decision. PHP has been the right decision for other projects, though. Just not this one.