I learned programming with PHP back in the mid-2000s, and worked professionally with it until about two years ago. I haven't touched it since 7.4 or so, except to help some friends with WordPress sites and such.

It might be me getting old and grumpy, but PHP seemed to peak in terms of usability and syntax around 7.2. Lots of the new type syntax in the article is... inscrutable to me. I'm all for strong typing in general, and I don't miss the type coercion and weirdness of PHP, and I'm glad to see it continue to move forward. It's just the syntax.

Back when PHP 7 was being discussed, I followed the arguments on the mailing lists closely and was rooting so hard for those advocating adding much more explicit and strict typing, and I remember me and a coworker getting rather upset at the old timers like Zeev who were adamantly opposed (and who mostly lost the fight). I'm only 33, but I've got nearly 20 years history with PHP, and I suppose now I'm the old timer.

My last project in PHP was forced by business concerns to support PHP 5.4 through (at the time I left) 7.4. The massive pain required to make that work might have colored my perceptions of the whole situation.