I'm from a generation where BASIC was the go-to programming language since it was available on every single computer sold at the time.

Everyone I know who was a kid in the mid-80's and who is still programming today learned programming from this crappy language called BASIC.

When you start out learning to program all you need to learn is about variables, functions, basic constructs such as loops and if's etc. and maybe a bit about data types. PHP let people do exactly that and guess what, today people don't write command line apps anymore. Their context of learning to program is by making a website.

Most people who are serious about programming and learn to program with PHP are smart enough to learn other languages as well just like me and my friends did after we first learned BASIC.