JavaScript: the language that can barely understand itself is better than PHP! The language, where JetBrain's IDE (arguably one of the best IDEs when it comes to understanding languages, consistently better than any LSPs among other things) can barely understand it fully, is better than PHP! The language that has consistently added new features, but have yet to fix horrible messes of legacy design.

The majority of Gary Bernhardt's 2012 talk "wat"[0] is still relevant today with JavaScript. PHP's devs at least are actively trying to address the majority of issues people have had problems with, and have done so successfully for many of the issues it had.

In my opinion the only thing JavaScript has going for it over PHP is its ability to develop frontend and backend code using the same language, but then, you know, you'll need a million NPM dependencies if you pull in some of the simplest packages.

Until TypeScript takes over JavaScript I refuse to believe anyone who understands either languages fully prefers JS over PHP. I've yet to dabble in Deno, but I'm hoping that it also addresses much of the issues with JS, but I'm doubtful since it's also based on V8.

[0] https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat